“We know traitors by names” – Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin shared some details of his meeting with the returned spies.

Question: And you won’t say anything else?

Vladimir Putin: Well, you are not asking anything else.

Q: What did you talk about?

VP: About life.

Q: They say you did some karaoke singing together.

VP: We did some singing, though not karaoke.

Q: What did you sing then?

VP: We sang to live music.

Q: Live music, and what songs did you sing?

VP: “Where does the Motherland start” – seriously, I’m not kidding you, and some other songs of the same kind.

Q: Was Anna Kuchenko present?

VP: What?

Q: Anna Chapman.

VP: Yes, she was. You know, there is not much to add here. Dmitry Medvedev already said that this is the result of a sell-out. And sellouts always come to no good, they end up in a ditch either drunk or drugged. The other day one such traitor kicked the bucket exactly like that, abroad. And there is no point doing it, really…

Q: You mean that you know all traitors by names?

VP: Of course we do.

Q: And you aren’t going to punish them in any way, are you? You think they will just somehow..?

VP: I think that is an improper question. And such decisions are not made at a press conference. Intelligence agencies have their own code, and all their staff follow it. As for these people, I can say that it has been a hard lot for each and every one of them. Just imagine – you must learn a foreign language as if it were your mother tongue, you’d have to think in it, and speak it, and execute all the tasks set by the motherland for many long years and with no diplomatic cover to back you up, and facing threats to your own safety and that of your families when, say, your own children don’t even know what you do.

Q: Could you say what they will do now in Russia?

VP: They will work, and I am sure they will have good jobs, and I am sure that they will live a full life.

Q: How high is your assessment of their performance?

VP: It is not my job to assess it. This must be done by experts and their superiors, and the end consumer of such kind of information, the supreme commander – the President of the Russian Federation.