MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin gave Russian nationals freed in a historic prisoner exchange with the West a hero's welcome on Aug 1 as they stepped off a plane in Moscow, promising them state awards and a conversation about their futures.

Eight people were returned to Russia as part of the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, including Vadim Krasikov, a hitman convicted by a German court of killing a former Chechen militant in a Berlin park, and two men convicted of cyber crimes in the United States, Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznyov.

Among those Moscow also got back: a Russian family, the Dultsevs, including their two children, whom a court in Slovenia convicted of pretending to be Argentinians in order to spy on the European Union and Nato member state. The couple are thought to be "illegals" - deep-cover agents trained to impersonate foreigners, who spend years living abroad in their cover identities.

In return, US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan were among those released by Moscow in a complex deal negotiated in secrecy for more than a year.

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