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Speculation growing of US-Russia 'spy swap'
Submitted by Khushi in Politics, on the 08th of July, 2010 at 06:15:21am.
Speculation is growing that the US and Russia are preparing a Cold War-style prisoner swap.
The US lawyer defending one of 10 suspected Russian spies has said the case could be resolved when they face formal charges later on Thursday.
The family of a Russian convicted of spying for the US said he was transferred from a prison in the far north earlier this week to be swapped.
Neither Russian nor US authorities have commented on the reports.
The 10 suspects in the US accused of spying for Russia are being moved to New York to face charges.
In New York on Wednesday, a court unsealed an indictment against the 10 and an 11th suspect who went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus.
EAST-WEST PRISONER SWAPS
* 1962: KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel freed by US in exchange for Gary Powers, pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over the USSR in 1960
* 1969: UK frees Soviet agents Peter and Helen Kroger for Gerald Brooke, jailed for spying in USSR
* 1981: Guenter Guillaume, agent for East Germany's Stasi, exchanged for Western agents
* 1985: US agents held in Eastern Europe handed over in return for a top Polish agent, Marian Zacharski, and three others held in West
* 1986: Soviet dissident Anatoly Sharansky and three Western agents swapped for KGB husband-and-wife spies Karl and Hana Koecher and two other agents
A lawyer for one of the accused said on Wednesday that he had spoken to US prosecutors and Russian officials about a speedy resolution to the case and that a swap could be finalised on Thursday.
"I feel our discussions will probably be resolved by tomorrow one way or another," Anna Chapman's lawyer Robert Baum was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Another lawyer said it was possible that some or all of the defendants would plead guilty at their arraignment hearing in New York on Thursday, allowing them to be speedily deported.
The 10 were arrested last month on suspicion of conspiring to work as illegal agents for the Russian government.
The crime is less serious than espionage but carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Nine of the group are also accused of money laundering.
'No choice'
The lawyer and the family of nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin, jailed in Russia for spying for the CIA, have said he would be flown on Thursday to Vienna and then London as part of an exchange of prisoners.
Sutyagin is a nuclear specialist serving a 15-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2004 of passing information to a UK firm allegedly used as a front by the CIA.
"They want to exchange Sutyagin for one of those arrested in the United States for spying," the lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, said on Wednesday.
Igor Sutyagin (2004 picture) Igor Sutyagin was convicted of spying for the CIA in Russia in 2004
"They want the swap to take place tomorrow."
Sutyagin was moved earlier this week from a prison in the far north of Russia to Moscow's high-security Lefortovo prison, where he was allowed to meet his family.
His brother said Igor was told by Russian officials before he was moved that he would be released and sent to the UK in exchange for an unknown number of spies.
US officials were present at the meeting, Sutyagin's brother Dmitry said.
Dmitry said Igor had seen a list of about 10 Russian prisoners that the US had given Moscow that included Sergei Skripal.
Skripal is a Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer convicted of spying for the UK in 2006.
Russian newspaper Kommersant said the list 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.
It remains unclear whether the suspects held in New York are to be involved in any swap, but in a move that fuelled speculation, a top US diplomat met the Russian ambassador to Washington.
No details were given of the talks between undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns, a former US ambassador to Moscow, and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak other than the fact that the issue of spies came up in the meeting, in which they also discussed Iran
The US lawyer defending one of 10 suspected Russian spies has said the case could be resolved when they face formal charges later on Thursday.
The family of a Russian convicted of spying for the US said he was transferred from a prison in the far north earlier this week to be swapped.
Neither Russian nor US authorities have commented on the reports.
The 10 suspects in the US accused of spying for Russia are being moved to New York to face charges.
In New York on Wednesday, a court unsealed an indictment against the 10 and an 11th suspect who went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus.
EAST-WEST PRISONER SWAPS
* 1962: KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel freed by US in exchange for Gary Powers, pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over the USSR in 1960
* 1969: UK frees Soviet agents Peter and Helen Kroger for Gerald Brooke, jailed for spying in USSR
* 1981: Guenter Guillaume, agent for East Germany's Stasi, exchanged for Western agents
* 1985: US agents held in Eastern Europe handed over in return for a top Polish agent, Marian Zacharski, and three others held in West
* 1986: Soviet dissident Anatoly Sharansky and three Western agents swapped for KGB husband-and-wife spies Karl and Hana Koecher and two other agents
A lawyer for one of the accused said on Wednesday that he had spoken to US prosecutors and Russian officials about a speedy resolution to the case and that a swap could be finalised on Thursday.
"I feel our discussions will probably be resolved by tomorrow one way or another," Anna Chapman's lawyer Robert Baum was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Another lawyer said it was possible that some or all of the defendants would plead guilty at their arraignment hearing in New York on Thursday, allowing them to be speedily deported.
The 10 were arrested last month on suspicion of conspiring to work as illegal agents for the Russian government.
The crime is less serious than espionage but carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Nine of the group are also accused of money laundering.
'No choice'
The lawyer and the family of nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin, jailed in Russia for spying for the CIA, have said he would be flown on Thursday to Vienna and then London as part of an exchange of prisoners.
Sutyagin is a nuclear specialist serving a 15-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2004 of passing information to a UK firm allegedly used as a front by the CIA.
"They want to exchange Sutyagin for one of those arrested in the United States for spying," the lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, said on Wednesday.
Igor Sutyagin (2004 picture) Igor Sutyagin was convicted of spying for the CIA in Russia in 2004
"They want the swap to take place tomorrow."
Sutyagin was moved earlier this week from a prison in the far north of Russia to Moscow's high-security Lefortovo prison, where he was allowed to meet his family.
His brother said Igor was told by Russian officials before he was moved that he would be released and sent to the UK in exchange for an unknown number of spies.
US officials were present at the meeting, Sutyagin's brother Dmitry said.
Dmitry said Igor had seen a list of about 10 Russian prisoners that the US had given Moscow that included Sergei Skripal.
Skripal is a Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer convicted of spying for the UK in 2006.
Russian newspaper Kommersant said the list 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.
It remains unclear whether the suspects held in New York are to be involved in any swap, but in a move that fuelled speculation, a top US diplomat met the Russian ambassador to Washington.
No details were given of the talks between undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns, a former US ambassador to Moscow, and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak other than the fact that the issue of spies came up in the meeting, in which they also discussed Iran
