TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — New details emerged Friday on the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, with the Kremlin acknowledging for the first time that some of the Russians held in the West were from its security services. Families of freed dissidents, meanwhile, expressed their joy at the surprise release.

While journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan were greeted by their families and President Joe Biden in Maryland on Thursday night, President Vladimir Putin embraced each of the Russian returnees at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, and promised them state awards and a “talk about your future.”

Among the eight returning to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen fighter in a Berlin park. German judges said the murder was carried out on orders from Russian authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that Krasikov is an officer of the Federal Security Service, or FSB — a fact reported in the West even as Moscow denied any state involvement.

He also said Krasikov once served in the FSB’s special Alpha unit, along with some of Putin’s bodyguards.

“Naturally, they also greeted each other yesterday when they saw each other,” Peskov said, underscoring Putin’s high interest in including Kresikov in the swap.

Peskov also confirmed that the couple released in Slovenia — Artem Dultsov and Anna Dultsova — were undercover intelligence officers commonly known as “illegals.” Posing as Argentine expats, they used Ljubljana as their base since 2017 to relay Moscow’s orders to other sleeper agents and were arrested on espionage charges in 2022.

Their two children joined them as they flew to Moscow via Ankara, Turkey, where the mass exchange took place. They do not speak Russian, and only learned their parents were Russian nationals sometime on the flight, Peskov said.

They also did not know who Putin was, “asking who is it greeting them,” he added.

“That’s how illegals work, and that’s the sacrifices they make because of their dedication to their work,” Peskov said.

Two dozen prisoners were freed in the historic trade, which was in the works for months and unfolded despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow freed 15 people in the exchange — Americans, Germans and Russian dissidents — most of whom have been jailed on charges widely seen as politically motivated. Another German national was released by Belarus.

Among the dissidents released were Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer serving 25 years on charges of treason widely seen as politically motivated; associates of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny; Oleg Orlov, a veteran human rights campaigner, and Ilya Yashin, imprisoned for criticizing the war in Ukraine.

They were flown to Germany amid an outpouring of joy from their supporters and relatives — but also some shock and surprise.

“God, it is such happiness! I cried so much when I found out. And later, too. And I’m about to cry again now, as well,” said Tatyana Usmanova, the wife of Andrei Pivovarov, another opposition activist released in the swap, writing on Facebook as she flew to meet him. Pivovarov was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to four years in prison.

In a phone call to Biden, Kara-Murza said “no word is strong enough for this.”

“I don’t believe what’s happening. I still think I’m sleeping in my prison cell in (the Siberian city of) Omsk instead of hearing your voice. But I just want you to know that you’ve done a wonderful thing by saving so many people,” he said in a video posted on X.

The threat of a regional war in the Middle East is troubling world leaders as Islamic extremist groups climb back to the top of international headlines, this time with the backing of state-sponsored terrorism.   

The Houthi terrorist group has been a long-standing nuisance in the Red Sea due to its near-decade-long attacks on military and merchant ships using increasingly sophisticated weapons systems. 

Following Hamas terrorists’ deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, Houthi-led attacks in the Red Sea have drastically increased, and the group has vowed not to cease its operations until Israel stops its attacks against Hamas and the Palestinian people.

However, these strikes are rooted in more than Houthi opposition to the war in Gaza and point to an increasingly sophisticated geopolitical tactic by U.S.’s chief adversaries, Iran and Russia.

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“The Houthis have become a major player in Iran’s strategy to tighten the noose around Israel,” Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and founding editor of “The Long War Journal,” told Fox News Digital. 

However, the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are not only playing into Iran’s strategy, they are aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine, and by extension, the U.S. and NATO.

Reports surfaced earlier this month suggesting that Russia may be looking to arm Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea in retaliation for the U.S.’ immense support of Ukraine. 

Though U.S. defense officials have said they do not believe Moscow has yet transferred any arms to the terrorist organization, the news followed a meeting that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov reportedly had with Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam earlier this year. 

The meeting was an alleged attempt by the militant group to encourage Russia to put pressure on the U.S. and stop the war in Gaza.

Western defense officials have been sounding the alarm that Houthi attacks in the Red Sea not only threaten the lives of those in international waters, but are contributing to food and trade shortages worldwide, further exacerbating global food insecurity, particularly in Africa, initially started by Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

The British-registered cargo ship Rubymar is seen sinking on March 3 after it was targeted by Yemen’s Houthi forces while traveling in the Red Sea. ( Al-Joumhouriah channel via Getty Images)

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“You can never look at these things in isolation,” Roggio said. “Anything the Russians can do to punish [the U.S.] – military costs, economic costs, political costs. It’s driving up the costs for the U.S. to support Ukraine by compounding problems throughout the Middle East.”

“The Russians are going to take advantage of any conflicts the U.S. are in,” he added. “We are kind of in a return to a Cold War-type state where this is bleeding over into theaters where the U.S. has direct interest.”

Roggio explained that while its “very possible” Russia is having direct communication with the Houthis, he believes it is more likely that Moscow is working through Tehran.

“What the Iranians are doing is beneficial for Iran,” he said. “Its almost like Russia is outsourcing pain for the U.S….via Iran.”

The Russia-Iran partnership first garnered global attention after Tehran agreed to supply Russian President Vladimir Putin with drones just six months into its deadly war in Ukraine. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 7, 2023.  (SERGEI BOBYLYOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

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Iran and Russia have since established a mutually beneficial partnership in an effort to counter Western sanctions slapped on both nations for varying security reasons. 

As attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea continue to mount, it has become increasingly evident how the militant group is being used by both Iran and Russia for their geopolitical aims.

From mid-October 2023 through July, there have been nearly 290 attacks by Houthi terrorists based out of Yemen directed at merchant and military ships in the Red Sea, as well as strikes against Israel, which the U.S. Navy has helped to intercept, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a nonprofit data collection agency.

Despite the increased U.S. presence in the Red Sea, the head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Erik Kurilla, reportedly advised Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that U.S. military operations in the region were “failing” and urged a broader approach, reported the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. 

People lift their rifles and chant slogans while participating in a protest staged in solidarity with Palestinians and Yemen’s Houthi rebels in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 22. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

“What we’re doing is basically targeting weapons systems. We’re not making an effort to target Houthi leadership, to target military and political leadership,” Roggio said. “You really want to get to the root of the problem – it’s the Iranians that are behind all of this.”

“The Iranians have not had to pay a price,” he added. “[They] are happy to let the Houthis fight to the death – that’s not really going to impact the Iranians.”

Italy’s controversial plan to open migrant processing centres in Albania has been delayed. Officials cite construction issues at the Gjadër site primarily due to the region’s hot weather.

Initially set to open on Thursday, the centres are expected to be operational in several weeks, according to Italian Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano.

The agreement signed last year by Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama aims to process the asylum claims of migrants rescued at sea while keeping them in Albania, a move that has garnered both criticism and support.

Locally, reactions to the centres are mixed.

While protests have occurred in Tirana and Lezhë, many residents near the sites seem largely indifferent.

Watch the Euronews Albania video above for more details on the story.