Jul.10, 2010

Russia and the United States seems poised to make the most important exchange of spies from the Cold War. Sign of the imminence of this possible, the safety has been reinforced around the prison Thursday Lefortovo in Moscow, where the researcher Igor Sutyagin, convicted of spying for Washington, was flown to Vienna.

Such an exchange would have a significant impact on efforts by Washington and Moscow to warm up relations strained by a climate of heightened suspicion.

On Thursday, a convoy of armored vehicles arrived at the prison Lefortovo regarded as a central gathering place for individuals convicted of spying for Western countries. Throughout the morning, police vehicles and services of the prison were seen leaving the scene, before a swarm of cameramen and photographers. But it is unclear whether the passengers were on board.

The Russian researcher Igor Sutyagin in nuclear science, since 2004 serving a sentence of 14 years imprisonment for spying for the United States, was transferred this week from custody near the Arctic Circle in Lefortovo in anticipation of an exchange of spies, according to his brother Dimitri and his lawyer, Anna Stavitskaïa.

According to the lawyer, a journalist told the family of the scientist that he had been seen coming out of a plane in Vienna on Thursday, indicating a possible first step in an exchange between Washington and spies Moscow. Anna Stavitskaïa however told The Associated Press she could not obtain confirmation of his transfer to the Russian authorities or other sources.

Dimitri Sutiagin meanwhile said the researcher had learned he was on a list of 11 inmates convicted of spying in Russia to be exchanged against 11 persons indicted in the United States and suspected by Washington of being secret agents to balance of Moscow.

He said Igor Sutyagin was to be transferred to Vienna and London, and remembered only one other name on this list, that of Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence colonel sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison for spying for Britain.

On Thursday, a federal court in New York should decide the fate of the ten suspects arrested in the United States at a hearing which was scheduled at 18:45 GMT (20:45 in Paris).

No leader in Russia and the United States has confirmed that an exchange was planned. Moreover, a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron has neither confirmed nor denied that a possible exchange would take place in London. “This is primarily a matter for U.S. authorities,” said Steve Field.

But defense lawyers in Moscow and New York have declared that the fate of some of their customers would be settled very soon.

In addition, recent developments, including a meeting in Washington on Wednesday between American officials and the Ambassador of Russia seems to announce a possible transfer.

“There is political will on both sides” and Moscow “has de facto recognized” that the suspects were “spies”, observes Pavel Felgenhauer, an intelligence expert.

The transfer to New York five suspects arrested in Massachusetts and Virginia was ordered Wednesday by several federal judges in Boston and Alexandria, Virginia. They join five other suspects were already jailed in New York.

On Wednesday, ten suspects detained in the United States and a man suspected of providing money to the alleged network, Christopher R. Metsos in-flight after being released on bail on Cyprus have been formally charged. According to the indictment, all are charged with conspiring to work as agents secrets and nine of them were prosecuted for conspiracy to engage in acts of money laundering. He asked all those who are affected by this charge of making assets.

The attorney Robert Baum, who represents one of the suspects, Anna Chapman, said the case could be settled during the appearance of his client and the other nine defendants, New York on Thursday, raising the possibility that they plead guilty to the charges are less strong and expelled from the United States.

Igor Sutyagin worked as a specialist in arms control in the USA and Canada Institute, a think tank based in Moscow, when he was arrested in 1999. The researcher, who has always protested his innocence, was convicted five years later for passing information on submarines and other weapons to a British company, according to investigators, served as a cover for CIA.