Ten people accused of espionage for Russia have pleaded guilty in a New York court to spying for a foreign country.
Correspondents suggest the guilty plea may facilitate a Cold War-style prisoner exchange.
The mother of suspect Anna Chapman has said she expects her to fly home to Russia on Friday.
Neither US nor Russian officials confirmed or denied that assertion.
The 10 pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country".
It was unclear how nine of them would plead to a separate charge of money-laundering.
It is the first time the 10 are appearing in public together since they were arrested last week.
Suggestions of a prisoner swap have emerged in Russia, where the family of a man jailed by Russia for espionage told the BBC he has had to confess in order to be included.
Igor Sutyagin has been transferred from an Arctic prison camp to a Moscow jail.
After being moved from a prison camp in the far north of Russia to a jail in Moscow this week, he told his family he would be flown to Vienna on Thursday and released as part of a deal between the US and Russian governments.
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A condition of any swap should be that Russia admits these people were indeed planted in the US
Coleman Nee, MA, USA Send your comments
Earlier, Sutyagin's lawyer was quoted by Russian media as saying he had arrived in the Austrian capital, but his father Vyacheslav denied the reports.
"This is all speculation, don't take it seriously," he told the BBC.
Austrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
'Resolution'
The BBC's Madeleine Morris, outside the federal court in New York, says this is the first time the 10 men and women accused of being unlawful agents for Russia are appearing in court together since they were arrested.
After being told of the charges against them they will be able to enter a plea.
EAST-WEST PRISONER SWAPS
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* 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
Who is on the 'spy-swap' list?
A federal indictment against them, along with an 11th suspect who went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus, was unsealed on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say the accused posed as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate policymaking circles and collect information.
Our correspondent says speculation is rife that they may plead guilty to at least one of the charges in order to facilitate any possible prisoner exchange.
Lawyers for some of the accused have added to that speculation saying the matter could be fully resolved "one way or another" by the end of the day, she adds.
'List of names'
News of Igor Sutyagin's release was broken by his lawyer in Moscow, Anna Stavitskaya, who quoted the prisoner's father.
Igor Sutyagin (2004 picture) Igor Sutyagin was convicted of spying for the CIA in Russia in 2004
She said Vyacheslav Sutyagin had been informed by a journalist's phone call that his son had arrived at a Vienna airport and been met "by an officer".
Ms Stavitskaya said she had not been able to confirm the news with the Russian authorities. Sutyagin was jailed in Russia in 2004 for spying for the CIA.
His brother Dmitry said Igor had been told by Russian officials that his release would be part of a spy swap, and that US officials had been present at a meeting.
Dmitry added that his brother 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 Under-Secretary 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.
Source: BBC News
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