Slovenia praises landmark US-Russia prisoner exchange after handing over 2 Russian spies

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Slovenian officials on Friday praised a landmark East-West prisoner exchange in which the tiny Alpine state participated by handing over two convicted Russian sleeper agents following secretive planning and negotiations with U.S. officials.

The United States and Russia on Thursday completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.

Among those exchanged was the Russian couple who posed as Argentine citizens after settling in Slovenia in 2017. The husband, who used the name Ludwig Gisch, ran a startup IT company. The wife, who had fake documents in the name of Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, had an online art gallery. Their actual names are Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva.

The couple reportedly used the Slovenian capital as their base to travel to neighboring NATO and EU member states, relay orders from Moscow and bring money to other Russian sleeper agents. They were arrested in December 2022.

On Wednesday, a day before the exchange, the two were sentenced in the Slovenian capital to 19 months in prison each after pleading guilty to spying charges. Slovenia’s 24.ur news portal reported that their guilty pleas were coordinated as part of the prisoner exchange.

The report, carried by Slovenia's STA state news agency, said the trial had not been supposed to end before autumn. Although the couple had categorically denied the spying charges since their arrest, they suddenly changed their narrative on Wednesday.

The couple's two teenage children, who had lived in foster care after their parents' 2022 arrest, were on a CIA plane that took them from Ljubljana to the Turkish capital, Ankara, where the exchange took place.

Photos released after they landed in Moscow showed them being greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin along with the other freed Russian nationals.

“Due to the fact that some activities are still going on, the time for an analysis of their role will come in the future,” senior Slovenian security official Vojko Volf told reporters on Friday. “I do not doubt they were very, very important.”

Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar praised the way the exchange operation was conducted.

“Slovenia and its intelligence agencies worked tirelessly and with great sensitivity with our allies and partners in prisoner exchange which successfully concluded yesterday,” she said on X. “I would like to pay respect and compliment everyone involved in this difficult action that saved lives.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has thanked U.S. allies, including Slovenia, for the major prisoner swap.

“I am grateful to our Allies who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome — including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey,” Biden wrote on X.