Conquer Club

Peskov also revealed that the two children of Artyom and Anna Dultsev, who had served as undercover spies in the Russian “illegals program” and were imprisoned in Slovenia, had only learned while on the plane to Moscow that they were Russian and “had anything to do” with Russia.

The children apparently believed they were Argentine, since their parents had posed in Slovenia as a couple from Argentina.

Mr. Krasikov and the other returnees received a hero’s welcome from Mr. Putin, who made a rare trip to the airport to greet them.

The Russian-made government plane pulled up in front of the V.I.P. terminal reserved for foreign dignitaries. Holding their rifles, officers of the honor guard flanked the red-painted pathway that leads toward the terminal building.

Mr. Putin stood next to the plane’s ramp, its steps covered with a red carpet, as his aides held flowers for him to give to Ms. Dultseva and her daughter.

In the past years, Mr. Putin hasn’t traveled to the airport even to greet foreign leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China last year, and his presence underscored how he viewed the swap as a personal triumph and a show of support for loyalists who carried out his wishes.

Inside the terminal, Mr. Putin thanked those prisoners “who are directly related to military service” for their loyalty to their “oath, duty and the Motherland.” He promised to decorate them with state awards and discuss their future in Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/worl ... a-fsb.html

How Germany Enabled a Historic Hostage Swap With Russia (...)

Three flights later, the tired and confused dissidents, some of whom braved poisoning attacks and torture in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, landed at a small airfield outside Cologne. They were welcomed by an inconspicuous, balding man in a striped suit who stood alone on the tarmac. He introduced himself as Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany.

Scholz was the central figure in a long and grueling negotiation with the Kremlin that eventually freed 16 Russian, American and German prisoners from Russian gulags on Thursday, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. For this, the chancellor agreed to pay a heavy price: the release of Vadim Krasikov, a veteran assassin for Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, who was serving a term of life imprisonment for gunning down a Chechen exile in a crowded Berlin park, just a stone’s throw from Scholz’s office.

Germany’s entire security establishment, leading ministers, top diplomats and government lawyers opposed the release of the Kremlin’s contract killer in exchange for the freedom of Western prisoners, because they feared it would set a dangerous precedent.

jusplay4fun wrote:

Three flights later, the tired and confused dissidents, some of whom braved poisoning attacks and torture in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, landed at a small airfield outside Cologne.