The prisoner exchange with Russia

The bad art of the Russian spy raised suspicions

They posed as Argentinian couple Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, director of an obscure online art gallery, and Ludwig Gisch, tech entrepreneur.

In fact, their names are Anna Dultseva and Artem Dultsev. From the villa where they lived with their two children in Crnuce, a suburb of Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, they communicated with Moscow using secret equipment.

- They never said hello to anyone and kept completely to themselves, says 93-year-old neighbor Majda Kvas to the New York Times.

Dultseva raised suspicions in the local art world. She appeared out of nowhere, and her art is described as "the kind you order from China". She was suspected of being a fraud, but there was never enough money involved for the authorities to take notice.

It was only after tips from Britain, where they had traveled on business trips, that the couple was arrested in 2022. This week they were included in the prisoner exchange with Russia.

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Another prisoner: I was handed over against my will

Another of the Russians brought to the West in the prisoner exchange has stated that it happened involuntarily, independent Meduza reports.

Ksenia Fadeyeva, former head of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's office in Siberian Tomsk, writes on Telegram:

"I must say that I did not give my consent to the exchange [...] As you probably already know, we were just loaded onto a bus by the FSB security service and then boarded a flight."

Earlier, one of the other opposition politicians, Ilja Jashin, said the same thing.

- I was deported from Russia against my will. My first wish in Ankara was to buy a ticket back to Russia.

Both he and another dissident, Andrej Pivovarov, told Reuters they have a desire to return home, but will continue their political activism abroad.