Forum Views ()
Forum Replies ()
Read more with google mobile :
US, Russia swap 10 Kremlin agents for 4 Western spies
Yahoo!
My Yahoo!
Mail
More Yahoo! Services
Account Options
New User? Sign Up
Sign In
Help
Yahoo! Search
web search
ADVERTISEMENT
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Photos
Sitemap
US, Russia swap 10 Kremlin agents for 4 Western spies
AFP - Friday, July 9
Send
IM Story
Print
US, Russia swap 10 Kremlin agents for 4 Western spies
NEW YORK (AFP) - – The United States and Russia sealed the most sensational spy swap since the height of the Cold War, exchanging 10 Russian agents for four convicted Western spies.
All 10 Russian spy suspects pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to acting as agents for Moscow and were ordered immediately expelled from the United States, never to return.
In exchange, Russia agreed to release four people convicted of spying for Western countries and imprisoned, at least in one case, in harsh regions once housing the communist Gulag.
The convicted agents in New York ranged from red-headed Russian Anna Chapman, whose nude pictures and racy sexual history have filled tabloids around the world, to Peruvian-American journalist Vicky Pelaez, who admitted to carrying a letter written in invisible ink.
However, the ring appeared to have been amateurish and made little impact in the decade since being formed.
Washington cited security and humanitarian grounds in allowing the agents, arrested June 27, to leave without serving a potentially five-year prison term.
"No significant national security benefit would be gained from the prolonged incarceration in the United States of these 10 unlawful agents," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
New York US Attorney Preet Bharara said Russia's agreement to release the four convicted spies was "the key provision."
In New York, Judge Kimba Wood rushed through the procedure, sentencing the 10 agents to "time served" within minutes of hearing them plead guilty.
With Washington keen to draw a line under the affair before it seriously upsets improving Russian-US relations, the court session was notable for the lack of light shed on the agents' alleged activities.
Speaking in English in accents ranging from thick Russian to American, all but one of the 10 -- Pelaez -- admitted they were Russian. Several also acknowledged using fake names in their botched attempt to hide in deep cover as US citizens.
For example, the defendants living as Richard and Cynthia Murphy were really Vladimir and Lydia Guryev, while Donald Heathfield's true name was revealed to be Andrey Bezrukov.
Only Pelaez, a firebrand columnist with New York's Spanish-language El Diario newspaper, gave a tantalizing hint of more James Bond-style activities, saying in Spanish through an interpreter that she "brought a letter with invisible ink" to her contact.
Russia went to great lengths to ease the deal, not only releasing four prisoners, but sending consular officials to the detained 10 to describe "the life these defendants might be returning to back in Russia," according to a US prosecutor.
Pelaez, the court heard, was promised free housing in Russia, a 2,000-dollar monthly stipend "for life," and visas for her children to visit.
The fate of the other nine was not spelled out.
Outside the courthouse, a lawyer for Chapman, the founder of a successful New York real estate company, said his client was "glad to be released from jail" but "unhappy that it has probably destroyed her business and that she has to return to Moscow."
In Moscow, a spokesman for President Dmitry Medvedev confirmed he had pardoned four Russians late Thursday, including arms control expert Igor Sutyagin, in a spy swap with the United States.
A lawyer for Sutyagin, who was sent to the frozen wastelands of Arkhangelsk after being convicted in 2004 of spying for the West, said her client may already have been released and taken to Vienna.
Also due to be exchanged was Sergei Skripal, a former colonel with Russian military intelligence sentenced in 2006 to 13 years jail on charges of spying for Britain.
The remaining two were Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former employee of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service who was jailed for 18 years for espionage in 2003, and a fourth called Gennadi Vasilenko.
History: US-Russia spy swaps
Exchanges of captured agents between Western and Eastern powers were a regular tactic in the Cold War, sometimes on the Glienicke Bridge between East and West Germany.
The last high-profile was swap was back in 1984, when US journalist Nicholas Daniloff was expelled from Russia the day before Gennady Zakharov, a Soviet official at the United Nations, came the other way after appearing for less than five minutes before a New York court.
Recommend
Send
IM Story
Print
News Search
Top Stories
Actor Ed Norton named UN biodiversity ambassador
Eurostar Paris-London service closes over safety fears
US, Russia swap 10 Kremlin agents for 4 Western spies
Airbus submits bid for US military mega-project
IMF presses US to cut debt
More Top Stories »
ADVERTISEMENT
Most Popular
Most Viewed
Most Recommended
Germany's 'Octopus oracle' keeps perfect record
IMF's global growth forecast amid financial shocks
Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan jailed for 90 days
German industry hit by sudden fall in orders
Paris Hilton arrested after Brazil World Cup match: reports
More Most Viewed »
Reclusive top mathematician turns down prize, again
Germany's 'Octopus oracle' keeps perfect record
Aussie men shoot each other in buttocks 'to see if it hurts'
Amputee cat gets bionic legs
Fans gather for Michael Jackson death anniversary
More Most Recommended »
Elsewhere on Yahoo!
Financial news on Yahoo! Finance
Stars and latest movies
Best travel destinations
More on Yahoo! News
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Subscribe to our news feeds
Top StoriesMy Yahoo!RSS
» More news feeds | What are news feeds?
Also on Yahoo
Answers
Groups
Mail
Messenger
Mobile
Travel
Finance
Movies
Sports
Games
» All Yahoo! Services
Site Highlights
Singapore
Full Coverage
Most Popular
Asia Entertainment
Photos
World Cup 2010
Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Service |
Privacy Policy |
Community |
Intellectual Property Rights Policy |
Help
Other News on Friday, 9 July 2010 Iran leader says sanctions will not slow atom work
Obama urges Israel to seize chance for peace
Campaign launched against Comcast-NBC Universal deal
US to deliver billions in equipment to tackle Afghan bombs
US-TECH Summary
News
IMF presses US to cut debt
Cable companies, networks mull smaller TV bundles
Graft fears as massive cash sums fly out of Kabul: WSJ
Iran leader says sanctions will not slow atom work
|
Pakistan busts gang of website hackers: official
Israel images 'show Hezbollah hiding arms'
Chechnya's leader hails paintball attacks on women
|
News
Mauritania adopts new anti-terrorism law
|
France, Netherlands seek to halt Internet censorship
Obama sees Turkey turning eastward if snubbed by EU
U.S., UK urge Iran halt stoning execution
|
In Iraq, "young American male" yearns for action
Cuban dissident said to have ended hunger strike
|
News
Drug war hits Mexico's richest city
|
US to spend $3B to combat Afghan homemade bombs
Ishikawa thrilled with opening 67
2 NATO troops and Afghan police official killed
Indonesian anti-graft activist attacked
Hong Kong police smash large cross-border gambling ring
News
Catholic priest, nun murdered in China
Europe to give US access to bank data for terror probes
News
Cable companies, networks mull smaller TV bundles
|
A Minute With: Jane Lynch on her Glee-filled year
|
HBO dominates Emmy nods for 10th straight year
|
Katy Perry, Eminem lead U.S. singles chart again
|
Bomb kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan
Eurostar resumes London-Paris train service
U.S. and Russia to swap spies after 10 plead guilty
|
Fujitsu: acquisition targets include software firms
News
Iran will not stone woman to death after outcry
US swaps 10 Russian spies for 4 'agents' held by Moscow
Australia halts web filter plan ahead of polls
Ahmadinejad says sanctions will not alter nuclear drive
Eurostar Paris-London service closes over safety fears
Ten Russian spies leave US after swap deal: report
Mattis named overall US commander of Iraq, Afghan wars
Venezuela nabs 2 for trying to 'Twitter' a run on banks
US, Russia swap 10 Kremlin agents for 4 Western spies
Cuba dissident ends hunger strike
U.S. eavesdropping agency says Private Citizen is purely R&D
Cuba takes first steps toward prisoner release
|
News
Turkey still sees chance of Iran nuclear fuel swap deal
Suicide bomb kills 20 in NW Pakistan
|
Venezuela arrests two for banking rumor Tweets
Japan PM party may miss vote target
|
PayPal, Tesla founder goes public on divorce
China finds fresh trade in toxic milk powder: report
|
Russia to free four Western spies for its agents
Fear belies Pakistan boasts of becalmed borderlands
|
Slovak president appoints liberal Radicova as PM
U.N. council draft condemns attack on South Korean ship
|
Cuba dissident Farinas ends hunger strike: opposition
Russia's Medvedev pardons four jailed spies
U.S. and Russia to swap spies after 10 plead guilty
Presbyterians split on gay-friendly measures
Pakistan bomb attack kills 12, wounds 90
Bangladesh bans religious punishments
Australia backs away from Timor refugee plan
Suicide bomb kills 20 in NorthWest Pakistan
Google confident of getting China web license
|
Singer Coco set to step out of father's shadow
Watchdog slams Thai army, protesters over casualties
U.S. eavesdropping agency says Private Citizen is purely R&D
|
Whose Emmy strategies worked, and whose didn't?
S.Africans favour 'orange' World Cup final
Anti-UN minister presses on with hunger strike
US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary
Venezuela arrests two for banking rumor Tweets
|
U.N. response on South Korea ship raises calls for North talks
Drake NY concert cancelled after security concerns
China seizes melamine-tainted milk powder
Fujitsu: acquisition targets include software firms
|
South Africa's Bushmen try to adapt to modern life
Google confident China will renew licence
Rookie series rock the Emmys
Seoul shares rise as investors welcome rate hike
Japan PM party may miss vote target, policy at risk
"Inception" is no dream for marketers
South Korea unexpectedly raises key interest rate
Taiwan forecasts GDP, jobs rise from China pact
Winners and losers emerge at summer box office midpoint
Pakistan c.bank sells 10 bln rupees of T-bills in repo
News
Bank of Korea lifts rates; more hikes expected
PAKISTAN
News
US avoids labeling China currency manipulator
Seoul shares open up on U.S. gains, techs
World Bank approves $6.2 bln Pakistan lending plan
Police probe claims Gibson abused ex-girlfriend
|
Fresh faces add zest to Emmy nominations
|
Drake NY concert cancelled after security concerns
|
Whose Emmy strategies worked, and whose didn't?
|
Inception is no dream for marketers
|
Winners and losers emerge at summer box office midpoint
|
Scorsese sued by receiver for celebrity money man
|
Italian media on strike over bill to curb wiretapping
Iran 'yet to confirm' woman's stoning stay: lawyer
Google says China has renewed its operating licence
Russia, U.S. swap 14 spies in Cold War-style exchange
|
Gameworld: Motion games broaden uses beyond exercise
'Miscommunication' behind Afghan friendly fire deaths
Greece to auction 1.25bln euros of debt: officials
Amid gunfire, U.S. troops try to bring governance to Kandahar
|
British soldier killed in Afghanistan
Google's Schmidt undaunted by Apple or Facebook
Suicide bomber kills five in Baghdad: ministry
U.N. council draft condemns attack on South Korean ship
|
Google to resume gathering map data in 4 countries
West uses e-networking to subvert China: Study
India and Pakistan in first substantive talks since Mumbai
|
Fujitsu plans to beef up cloud computing business
Aid ship to sail from Greece for blockaded Gaza
|
Italian journalists strike over Berlusconi law
|
Taliban commander captured as US raids intensify
Bettencourt affair heats up with raids, reports
|
Sri Lanka war crimes rift with U.N. widens over protests
|
K.Rouge prison chief sacks his international lawyer
Russia and U.S. swap 14 spies in Cold War-style exchange
N.Zealand anti-whaling activist deported from Japan
DOJ reviews Mass. rulings on fed gay marriage ban
Ex-officer convicted in Calif. train killing
Suicide attack kills 65 in Pakistan tribal belt
Gameworld: Motion games broaden uses beyond exercise
|
Presbyterians split on gay-friendly measures
Google says China has renewed its operating licence
Online news site leads charge in French scandal
|
Emmy snubs! Master grouse list
Thai PM plans first Myanmar visit next month
Google's Schmidt undaunted by Apple or Facebook
|
Helicopters revolutionise mountain rescue in Nepal
Chinese monk held for murder of priest and nun
Al-Qaeda: poor Yemeni town cursed by its name
Google to resume gathering map data in 4 countries
|
North Korea says jailed American attempted suicide
Fujitsu plans to beef up cloud computing business
|
Pakistani rupee eases to new low; stocks post gains
Asia markets edge higher on US, Europe lead
India expects bumper harvest to ease prices: minister
Peugeot Citroen announces China joint venture
WRAPUP 1-S.Korea surprises with rate rise, more to come
China auto sales up nearly 50% in first half: report
Japan's DoCoMo plans new app platform for phones
Emmy snubs! Master grouse list
|
Keeping up with self-made star Kim Kardashian
|
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights