Russia, US brace for spy swap

Jul 09, 2010 |

July 8: The special riot police secured the perimeter of Moscow’s Lefortovo prison on Thursday and a gaggle of TV cameras and photographers jostled for the best position as the world braced for what could be largest spy swap since the Cold War. A convoy of armoured vehicles arrived in the morning at the prison, thought to be the central gathering point for people convicted of spying for the West, including nuclear researcher Igor Sutyagin, serving a 14-year sentence for spying for the United States.

Sutyagin’s brother and lawyer say he was transferred to Lefortovo earlier this week to take part in the swap and could be flown out to freedom as early as Thursday. They said Sutyagin saw a list of 11 prisoners in Russia who are being traded for 10 people arrested in the United States for being unregistered Russian agents.

In New York, a federal court was to decide the fate of those 10 suspects later on Thursday. Officials in neither country would confirm an exchange was planned.

But the machinations — including a meeting in Washington between US officials and the Russian ambassador on Wednesday — had all the hallmarks as the two former Cold War antagonists moved to tamp down tensions stirred by the US arrests.

“A swap seems very much on the cards. There is political will on both sides, and actually by even moving it as far as they have, Moscow has de facto acknowledged that these guys were spies,” intelligence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said.

Five suspects charged with spying in the US were hurriedly ordered to New York on Wednesday, joining five others already behind bars there, after Sutyagin, a Russian arms-control researcher, spilled the news of the swap from his forlorn penal colony near the Arctic Circle. Dmitry Sutyagin said his brother was told he was among a dozen convicted spies who were to be exchanged for Russians arrested by the FBI.

He said his brother could be taken to Vienna, then London, as early as Thursday. Defence lawyers in Moscow and New York have expressed confidence that their clients’ fates would be settled very soon.

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