Russia seeks spy swap to free agents in US
By DPA, IANSWednesday, July 7, 2010
MOSCOW - The Kremlin wants to resort to a spy swap reminiscent of the Cold War era to free some of the 10 Russians who were recently detained in the US on espionage allegations, Russian media reported Wednesday.
Nuclear expert and convicted spy Igor Sutyagin has already been transferred to Moscow from a penal camp in northern Russia, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted his lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, as saying.
The 45-year-old will presumably be exchanged along with other spies whose cover has been blown, Stavitskaya said.
Double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian prison in 2006, is also to be swapped, Moscow-based media outlets reported.
US and Russian officials would not comment on the reports.
Speculation of a possible swap was fuelled by a meeting at the Russian embassy in Washington between the ambassador and a top US diplomat.
A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said in Washington the spy case likely came up during the meeting, but said the focus on the discussion was on bilateral issues and the White House visit in June of President Dmitry Medvedev. He would not comment on any swaps.
According to the Russian civil rights activist Ernst Tcherny, Moscow will want to free as many of the alleged spies arrested in the US as possible.
Stavitskaya said she heard that up to 11 convicted spies are to be brought to the US or Britain. It is unclear when the swap is to take place, she said.
“My client has agreed to the exchange in London, because his life in Russia would otherwise be destroyed,” she added.
Sutyagin had been sentenced to 15 years in prison during a widely publicized trial on high treason charges in 2004. A Moscow court found him guilty of having delivered information on Russian anti-missile defence systems and nuclear submarines to a British agency with links to the US secret service.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 10 espionage suspects in late June, in a spectacular blow to what is believed to have been a Russian spy ring.
Officials in Moscow and Washington have endeavoured to limit the effect of the affair on the recently improved bilateral relations between the two countries.
