Children Of Spies Learn Their True Identity

Two young children were swept up in a sprawling geopolitical world of 007 after learning that they were actually Russian during their flight to Moscow.

The two children of undercover Russian spies who posed as Argentinian citizens living in Slovenia, were greeted by President Putin.

Over the din of the plane, Putin could be heard greeting the children with "buenas noches"-the Spanish phrase for good evening.

The couple, Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valrevna Dultseva went by the alias of Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Munos, were among Putin's elite team of intelligence officers who were planted in Slovenia to relay orders from Moscow and bring cash to other Russian sleeper agents.

The husband ran a startup, while the wife, had an online art gallery.

Their children attended an international school in Ljubljana, and according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, were only told on the plane to Moscow that they were actually Russian. In a statement on Friday, Peskov said

"Before that, they did not know that they were Russian, that they had anything to do with our country. They asked their parents yesterday who this guy was meeting them. They didn't even know who Putin was."

Peskov also praised the couple and others intelligence offers alike who sacrificed "for the sake of their work and for the sake of devotion to the cause."

Just one day, before the historical meeting with Putin, the couple was charged with espionage and using fake documents to register their firms and were sentenced to 19 months in prison each, after pleading guilty for spying charges.

But they were rescued by Putin as part of the controversial and complex Cold War-style prisoner swap.

The Dulsevas were two of the eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S and Europe and traded for four Americans-including Evan Gershkovitch and Paul Whelan-five Germans and seven Russian political prisoners released to the West.

In a speech delivered in the airport terminal to the returnees-which included spies as well as smugglers, cybercriminals and an assasin, Putin said

"I would like to thank you for the loyalty to your oath, your duty and your motherland, which has not forgotten you even for a minute."