RUSSIA: Media say spy convict Igor Sutyagin named in possible swap has arrived in Vienna

Record ID: 735305

  • Title: RUSSIA: Media say spy convict Igor Sutyagin named in possible swap has arrived in Vienna
  • Date: 9th July 2010
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 8, 2010) (REUTERS) HIGH SECURITY LEFORTOVO PRISON GATE, ARMOURED VEHICLES INSIDE LEFORTOVO PRISON FENCE, BUILDINGS BEHIND ENTRANCE READING "PRE-TRIAL PRISON NO. 2 MOSCOW" PRISON BUILDING BEHIND FENCE WITH BARBED WIRE CONVOY OFFICER WALKING, APPROACHING POLICE CAR AT PRISON GATE BARBED WIRE ON TOP OF WALL GATE WITH POLICE AND ARMOURED VAN IN FRONT OF PRISON GATE VARIOUS OF CONVOY OFFICER WALKING OUT, OPENING ARMOURED VAN DOOR CLOSE OF METAL GATE, CONVOY OFFICER PASSING BY BEHIND IT CONVOY TRUCK LEAVING PRISON RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING EXTERIOR RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN ANDREI NESTERENKO ENTERING BRIEFING SIGN OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN, ANDREI NESTERENKO, SAYING: "I have no comments on this issue. There was only one comment we made. It was was put on our website on June 29, and I have nothing more to say about it." RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING EXTERIOR
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8OODBFJ6MWL167NUY9CABU1HN
  • Story Text: Russia and the United States appeared on Thursday (July 8) to start a swap to send home a group of suspected Russian spies detained since late June in exchange for the release of some prisoners held in Russia.
    Russian nuclear expert, Igor Sutyagin, jailed for passing secrets to the West told his family this week that he had been informed by Russian officials that he was to be handed over as part of the spy swap.
    Interfax news agency has cited a rights activist as saying Sutyagin had been transferred to Vienna in readiness for the swap.
    Sutyagin told his family he had seen a list of at least 10 names who would be exchanged for the 10 suspected Russian agents arrested last month in the United States.
    The nuclear expert and former research fellow at the Moscow-based Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies was jailed for 15 years in 2004.
    Sutyagin was charged with passing classified military information to a British firm which prosecutors said was a front for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He has always said he was innocent.
    His lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, and his family say he was told by Russian officials that he would be swapped for one of the suspected agents in the United States.
    Under the swap plans, Sutyagin was to be sent to Vienna and then to London. He was being held in Moscow's high security Lefortovo prison earlier this week.
    The Russian Foreign Ministry refused to comments on the issue.
    "I have no comments on this issue. There was only one comment we made. It was was put on our website on June 29, and I have nothing more to say about it," said Andrei Nesterenko, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman, on Thursday, in response to a question on the agent swap between Russia and U.S.
    The Foreign Ministry statement Nesterenko referred to said: "Such actions are baseless and improper. We do not understand what prompted the U.S. Justice Department to make a public statement in the spirit of Cold War espionage."
    "We deeply regret that all of this has happened against the background of the relations reset declared by the U.S. administration," it said in the statement on June 29.
    Ten Russians were arrested in four locations in the eastern United States late June, where some led seemingly typical suburban lives. An 11th suspect was arrested in Cyprus but has since disappeared after being bailed.
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