|
Russia, US swap 14 spies in Cold War-style exchange
The biggest spy swap since the end of the Cold War appeared to have taken place on Friday as Russian and US planes met in Vienna to exchange agents, defusing an espionage drama that threatened improving relations. Two planes involved in the swap, one Russian, one US, parked side by side on the tarmac at Vienna airport for around an hour and a half as vehicles shuttled between them. The Russian plane then took off, followed by the US plane. Local officials maintained a strict news blackout throughout. Moscow and Washington had earlier agreed to swap 10 Russian agents held in the United States for four Russians jailed in Russia on charges of spying for the West. The dramatic conclusion to the espionage scandal which has gripped America came after spymasters brokered the deal on the instructions of presidents keen not to derail a series of important diplomatic breakthroughs in Russia-US relations. In the first step of the carefully choreographed swap, the 10 Russian agents pleaded guilty on Thursday in a New York court to charges against them and were immediately deported. "In exchange, the Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies", it said. Nuclear weapons: The US and Russian legislatures are also considering ratification of a key treaty cutting nuclear weapons and Russian accession to the World Trade Organisation, things neither side wants to jeopardise. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the spy swap "gives reason to expect that the course agreed on by the leaders of Russia and the US will be consistently implemented in practice and that attempts to knock the parties off this course will not succeed". Relatives of spies on both sides of the swap had waited anxiously in Russia -- all bar one of the 14 agents are Russian citizens -- for news of the swap. Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) declined all comment on details of the affair. Moscow has always prided itself on bringing trusted agents back home and Washington has agreed to swaps before, though rarely on this scale. The largest known Cold War spy swap was in 1985 when more than 20 spies were exchanged between East and West on the Glienicke Bridge in the then divided city of Berlin. Spymasters on both sides say that despite generally warmer relations, the two former Cold War foes still fund generous intelligence operations against each other. The current scandal broke when the United States said on June 28 it had uncovered a ring of suspected Russian secret agents who were using false identities to try to gather sensitive intelligence on the United States. FBI counter-intelligence agents explained that the Russians had communicated with Moscow by concealing invisible text messages in photographs posted on public internet sites and some had met Russian diplomats from the US mission in New York. A Kremlin source said Medvedev and Obama's warm relations had allowed the swap deal to be reached so swiftly. Posted by: Fred 2010-07-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=300697 |