Word of the spy swap came as 10 people accused of spying for Russia pleaded guilty in a New York City court.
View full sizeA car stops at the entrance to Moscow's Lefortovo prison, where Igor Sutyagin, a nuclear researcher convicted of spying for the West, was transferred on Wednesday. Dmitry Sutyagin, Igor's brother, said Russia and the United States are working out a spy swap involving Igor.WASHINGTON — The Russian government will release four people in the spy swap with the United States, two Obama administration sources said Thursday.
Word of the number of alleged spies the Russians are freeing came as 10 defendants accused of spying for Russia have told a federal judge in New York that they are pleading guilty.
An Obama administration official and an administration source both spoke on condition of anonymity because papers in the spy case are in the process of being released publicly. The two Obama administration sources would not disclose the names of those being released by Russia.
Candidates that Russia was reported to be offering in a spy swap were Igor Sutyagin, a military analyst with the U.S.A. and Canada Institute; Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence; Alexander Sypachev, a colonel in the Russian intelligence service, and Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Sutyagin was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2004 on charges of passing information on nuclear submarines and other weapons to a British company that Russia claimed was a CIA cover. Skripal was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in 2006.
Sypachev was sentenced in 2002 to eight years in prison on charges of passing secrets to the CIA. Zaporozhsky was sentenced in 2003 to 18 years in prison for espionage on behalf of the United States.
View full sizeA policeman escorts Russian arms control analyst Igor Sutyagin, accused of spying for the United States, to a courtroom in Moscow in this photo from Sept. 2, 2002. A lawyer for Sutyagin said Thursday that he reportedly has been flown to Vienna in what appeared to be the first step of a Russia-U.S. spy swap.More coverage:
» 'Spy swap' under way as 10 plead guilty in US court [The Guardian]
» Past Russian spies have found post-swap life gets a bit sticky [The Washington Post]
» Spy swap: Cold War rerun, but with a difference [The Associated Press]