US and Russia reach agreement on 'spy exchange'
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Thursday, July 08, 2010
The US is to deport 10 people who spied for Moscow in exchange for four people convicted of espionage in Russia.
Robert Baum, attorney for Anna Chapman, says those who have entered guilty pleas will be transferred to Moscow. A judge in New York ordered their immediate deportation after they pleaded guilty to spying for a foreign country. More serious money laundering charges against the 10 were dropped.
Details of the four people to be freed by Russia were not given other than that all had had "alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies".
The mother of Anna Chapman, one of the 10 Russian agents, said she expected her to fly home to Russia on Friday. The 10 pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country".
It was the first time they had all appeared in public together since being arrested last month.
Prosecutors said the accused had posed as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate policy-making circles and collect information.
Court documents revealed - apparently for the first time - the real names of five of the Russians involved:
* "Richard Murphy" and "Cynthia Murphy" admitted they were Russian citizens named Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev
* "Donald Howard Heathfield" and "Tracey Lee Ann Foley" admitted they were Russian citizens named Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova
* "Juan Lazaro" admitted that he was a Russian citizen named Mikhail Vasenkov
"Michael Zottoli" and "Patrica Mills" had admitted earlier they were Russian citizens named Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko had apparently operated in the US under their own names, while Vicky Pelaez was born in Peru.
An 11th suspect known as "Christopher Metsos" went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus, where he had been arrested.
One of the Russian prisoners expected to be freed by Moscow is nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, who was earlier transferred to Moscow from a prison near the Arctic Circle.
He told his family in Moscow that he would be flown to Vienna on Thursday and released as part of a deal between the US and the Russian governments.
Earlier, Sutyagin's lawyer was quoted as saying he had arrived in the Austrian capital, but his father Vyacheslav denied the reports. "This is all speculation, don't take it seriously," he said.
Austrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Sutyagin was jailed in Russia in 2004 for spying for the CIA.
His brother Dmitry said Igor had been told by Russian officials that his release would be part of a spy swap, and that US officials had been present at a meeting.
Dmitry added that his brother had seen a list of about 10 Russian prisoners that the US had given Moscow - and that it included Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer convicted of spying for the UK in 2006.
Russian newspaper Kommersant said the list also included Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former employee of Russia's Foreign Intelligence who was jailed for 18 years for espionage in 2003, and Alexander Sypachev, sentenced in 2002 to eight years in jail for spying for the CIA.