Was there a catch behind US-Russia largest prisoner exchange? Kremlin tries to explain

It was a strict demand of Russian President Putin that facilitated the release of the Russian citizens, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin demanded exchanging rather than delivering the convicted Americans, Peskov added.

"It was our tough position that yielded results, and our people came back home thanks to this position," Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov also noted that the fate of Russian citizens imprisoned in the United States is a subject of constant concern for Moscow.

On August 1, a large-scale prisoner exchange took place in Ankara between Russia, the United States and several European countries. The negotiations on their exchange had been held secretly for several months.

The negotiations were primarily conducted through the FSB and the CIA. The children of intelligence agents Artem and Anna Dultsev (Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer) who arrived from Slovenia did not even know that they were Russian until their plane landed in Moscow, Dmitry Peskov said.

"The children of illegal intelligence agents learned that they were Russian only when their plane took off from Ankara. When the children were coming off the plane they were not speaking Russian. [President Vladimir] Putin greeted them in Spanish — buenas noches (good evening). When these illegals were in prison, they were deprived of an opportunity to see their children as often as it was needed, there was no such opportunity at all, the threat of deprivation of parental rights was real," Peskov noted.

According to him, the children of the intelligence agents even asked their parents after meeting with Putin who greeted them.

"This is how illegals work, they make such sacrifices for the sake of their work, for the sake of dedication to their cause," Peskov said.

The press secretary of the head of state also said that US intelligence officers "tried to influence" one GRU officer (he did not reveal his name).

"We found the father here, and he said during a phone call: 'Son, you're doing everything right, hold on,'" Peskov said.

Answering a question about the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany for the murder of former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, Peskov confirmed that he was an FSB officer who previously served in the Alpha group.

"Interestingly, when he served in Alpha, he served together with some of the officers who now work in the presidential security. Naturally, they also greeted each other yesterday," the presidential press secretary added.

Russia looking for compromise to sign peace with Ukraine?

Journalists also asked Peskov whether the exchange was a sign that Russia was ready to compromise in order to achieve a peace agreement on Ukraine.

"These are different areas of work and completely different situations. Of course, this work that was carried out along the FSB-CIA line, it, of course, required very complex negotiations, the compilation of very complex, filigree chains, the involvement of a number of countries, but if we talk about Ukraine and more complex international problems, then this is a completely different matter. There are completely different principles there — the principles of the national interests of our country, the interests of national security," he said.

Some in the West claimed that Moscow was increasing the number of criminal cases against dissidents and foreign citizens in order to then "bargain with the West." Journalists asked Peskov to share his assessment of such accusations.

Dmitry Peskov did not agree with such a formulation. According to him, detentions of Russian citizens abroad, in particular in the United States, continue.

"Therefore, this is a completely unjustified and absurd accusation," he said.