The US and Russia have taken part in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War, in an exchange at Vienna airport.
One plane brought 10 Russian agents deported from the US after a court hearing at which they admitted being agents for a foreign country.
The other was said to have brought four people convicted of spying in Russia but given a presidential pardon after they signed to admit their guilt.
Both planes took off again after about 90 minutes.
The Russian Yakovlev Yak-42 plane said to be carrying the four people pardoned by Moscow had landed at Vienna airport at about the same time as the Vision Airlines Boeing 767-200 from New York, carrying the Russian agents.
Television pictures showed the two aircraft parked side-by-side on the runway. Covered aircraft stairs were brought up to both planes and none of the agents could be seen being transferred.
The BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says a swap on the runway would mean that no-one had officially entered the country.
Advertisement
The next destinations of the planes have not been confirmed.
However, a senior Russian official was earlier quoted by Agence France-Presse news agency as saying the Russian agents were expected to arrive back in their homeland on Friday.
The lawyer for nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, one of those released by Russia, confirmed that his client had left Moscow, Austrian media said.
Russia's foreign ministry acknowledged the swap, saying it would mean the "return to Russia of 10 Russian citizens accused in the United States, along with the simultaneous transfer to the United States of four individuals previously condemned in Russia".
'Conspiracy'
The 10 Russian agents earlier pleaded guilty in New York to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country". More serious money laundering charges against them were dropped.
History repeats itself as farce Who is Russia releasing? Vienna, playground for spies
Their New York court appearance was the first time they had all appeared in public together since being arrested last month.
Prosecutors said the accused had posed as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate policy-making circles and collect information.
BBC Washington correspondent Kevin Connolly says there is broad agreement in the US that the agents are being deported swiftly because neither government wants this to damage attempts to reset their often prickly relationship.
Court documents revealed the real names of five of the Russians involved:
* "Richard Murphy" and "Cynthia Murphy" admitted they were Russian citizens named Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev
* "Donald Howard Heathfield" and "Tracey Lee Ann Foley" admitted they were Russian citizens named Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova
* "Juan Lazaro" admitted that he was a Russian citizen named Mikhail Vasenkov
"Michael Zottoli" and "Patricia Mills" had admitted earlier they were Russian citizens named Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko had apparently operated in the US under their own names, while Vicky Pelaez was born in Peru.
An 11th suspect known as "Christopher Metsos" went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus, where he had been arrested.
The Kremlin named the four released in Russia as:
* Igor Sutyagin, a nuclear scientist jailed in 2004 for spying for the CIA
* Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the UK in 2006
* Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former employee of Russia's foreign intelligence service jailed for espionage in 2003
* Gennadiy Vasilenko, reportedly a former KGB agent
'Poor health'
The US state department said after the hearing that there would be "no significant national security benefit" in sentencing the 10 to lengthy jail terms.
"The network of unlawful agents operating inside the United States has been dismantled," spokesman Mark Toner said.
"The United States took advantage of the opportunity presented to secure the release of four individuals serving lengthy prison terms in Russia, several of whom were in poor health."
The lawyer for Anna Chapman played down the importance of the Russian group's espionage in the US.
Robert Baum told Associated Press: "None of the people involved from my understanding provided any information that couldn't be obtained on the internet."
A lawyer for Vicky Pelaez, John Rodriguez, said a Russian official had told his client she would receive $2,000 a month for life and free housing in Moscow, but added she would be allowed to leave Russia if she wanted to. Mr Rodriguez indicated Ms Pelaez would return to Peru.
The Russian foreign ministry said the exchange by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service and the US Central Intelligence Agency was being conducted in the context of "overall improvement of the US-Russian ties and giving them new dynamics".
EAST WEST SPY SWAP
* 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
No comments:
Post a Comment