ULYANOVSK, August 2. /TASS/. The return of the Dultsev family to Russia is a diplomatic and military victory for Russia, Viktor Bout, a member of the Ulyanovsk Region's legislature has told TASS.

"This is good news. It is certainly both a diplomatic and military victory for our special services, our Foreign Ministry, and all those who in these difficult conditions very carefully conducted this negotiation process, which ended with such an unprecedented exchange in history," Bout said.

He remarked that he felt a sense of joy for everyone who had returned to their homeland.

"Joy not only because that the Dultsev family have returned from the Slovenian prison, but also [for] all those who were in this group, who returned to the Motherland, who carried out their mission in the name of our Motherland, and those who had been abducted from third countries," he explained.

Bout was returned to Russia in 2022 as a result of an agreement with the United States to exchange him for American basketball player Brittney Griner.

The married couple - Artyom and Anna Dultsev - returned home as a result of the latest exchange. The family arrived in Slovenia on Argentine passports in 2017. There they established an IT company and an online gallery. After the start of the special operation in Ukraine in 2022, the intelligence of an unspecified country recommended that Ljubljana pay close attention to the family. The couple was arrested and their two children, a boy and a girl, were placed in foster care. Investigators argued that they were deep cover agents of Russia's foreign intelligence service. The couple pleaded guilty. On July 31, 2024, a court in Ljubljana sentenced them to one year and seven months in prison for espionage. They had already spent this period of time in custody.