MNeagle
12th July 2010, 06:48 AM
MOSCOW—The 14 alleged spies deported from Russia and the U.S. remained out of public view over the weekend amid uncertainty over where they had been taken and how they would restart their lives.
Relatives said they heard brief reports from two participants in Friday's spy swap, one of the largest since the Cold War, Russian media said.
Nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin phoned his family from an unidentified hotel near London, where he is apparently confined by British authorities until a decision is made about whether he will remain in the U.K., his mother said.
The whereabouts of the others, including the 10 Russian agents expelled from the U.S. to Moscow, were unknown. Russian media speculated that they were being debriefed at Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow.
One of the 10, Anna Chapman, had phoned her sister from Moscow's Domodedovo airport after landing Friday and reported, "Everything is OK. We have landed."
Russia's state-controlled national television channels reported the swap tersely, likely reflecting the Kremlin's desire to bury a story in which the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, after years of surveillance, busted a network ofdeep-cover "sleeper" agents who had failed to gain access to state secrets.
The 10 were exchanged in Vienna for three former KGB officers and Mr. Sutyagin, all serving prison sentences in Russia for passing sensitive information to the West. Two of the KGB officers had been convicted in their country of compromising dozens of Soviet-era and Russian agents in the West.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the 10 agents deported from the U.S. had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Russia. In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" that aired Sunday, he defended the swap as "an opportunity to get back...four people in whom we have a great deal of interest."
He also said all the children of the agents had been allowed to return to Russia "consistent with their parents' wishes" or, in the case of those who were adults, were allowed to make their own choices of where to live. He did not give the number of children; press reports have indicated there are seven. It remained unclear, however, whether all the agents and their families would choose to settle in Russia. One of the 10, New York journalist Vicky Pelaez, has no ties to Russia except for her marriage to Russian Mikhail Vasenkov, one of the others deported. Before her release, she expressed a desire to return to her native Peru.
Mr. Sutyagin told his brother Saturday that he was weighing a decision whether to return to Russia or stay abroad. Unlike the 10 deported from the U.S., who were barred from returning without permission from the attorney general, Mr. Sutyagin and the three KGB veterans are free to go back to Russia, Russian officials said. President Dmitry Medvedev pardoned the the four menlast week.
Dmitry Sutyagin told Russia's Interfax news agency that his brother "doesn't want to talk about his future yet and wants first to analyze the situation." Meanwhile, the family said, the scientist is confined to a small-town hotel pending a clarification of his status by British authorities, who didn't give him a U.K. visa upon arrival. The scientist was able to speak only briefly to his family from a pay phone, consuming the little cash he has, the brother said.
Another agent deported by Moscow, Sergei Skripal, was in Britain as well; the other two KGB men were flown to Washington.
By agreeing to the swap just 12 days after the U.S. busted the Russian agents, both sides avoided a series of drawn-out U.S. spy trials that would have strained an improving relationship that the two countries' presidents are eager to maintain.
"It's the best example of President Obama's policy to reset relations," said Nikolai Zlobin, a Russia specialist at the World Security Institute in Washington, an independent think tank. "Reset works."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580104575361001079323076.html?m od=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESecondNews
Relatives said they heard brief reports from two participants in Friday's spy swap, one of the largest since the Cold War, Russian media said.
Nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin phoned his family from an unidentified hotel near London, where he is apparently confined by British authorities until a decision is made about whether he will remain in the U.K., his mother said.
The whereabouts of the others, including the 10 Russian agents expelled from the U.S. to Moscow, were unknown. Russian media speculated that they were being debriefed at Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow.
One of the 10, Anna Chapman, had phoned her sister from Moscow's Domodedovo airport after landing Friday and reported, "Everything is OK. We have landed."
Russia's state-controlled national television channels reported the swap tersely, likely reflecting the Kremlin's desire to bury a story in which the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, after years of surveillance, busted a network ofdeep-cover "sleeper" agents who had failed to gain access to state secrets.
The 10 were exchanged in Vienna for three former KGB officers and Mr. Sutyagin, all serving prison sentences in Russia for passing sensitive information to the West. Two of the KGB officers had been convicted in their country of compromising dozens of Soviet-era and Russian agents in the West.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the 10 agents deported from the U.S. had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Russia. In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" that aired Sunday, he defended the swap as "an opportunity to get back...four people in whom we have a great deal of interest."
He also said all the children of the agents had been allowed to return to Russia "consistent with their parents' wishes" or, in the case of those who were adults, were allowed to make their own choices of where to live. He did not give the number of children; press reports have indicated there are seven. It remained unclear, however, whether all the agents and their families would choose to settle in Russia. One of the 10, New York journalist Vicky Pelaez, has no ties to Russia except for her marriage to Russian Mikhail Vasenkov, one of the others deported. Before her release, she expressed a desire to return to her native Peru.
Mr. Sutyagin told his brother Saturday that he was weighing a decision whether to return to Russia or stay abroad. Unlike the 10 deported from the U.S., who were barred from returning without permission from the attorney general, Mr. Sutyagin and the three KGB veterans are free to go back to Russia, Russian officials said. President Dmitry Medvedev pardoned the the four menlast week.
Dmitry Sutyagin told Russia's Interfax news agency that his brother "doesn't want to talk about his future yet and wants first to analyze the situation." Meanwhile, the family said, the scientist is confined to a small-town hotel pending a clarification of his status by British authorities, who didn't give him a U.K. visa upon arrival. The scientist was able to speak only briefly to his family from a pay phone, consuming the little cash he has, the brother said.
Another agent deported by Moscow, Sergei Skripal, was in Britain as well; the other two KGB men were flown to Washington.
By agreeing to the swap just 12 days after the U.S. busted the Russian agents, both sides avoided a series of drawn-out U.S. spy trials that would have strained an improving relationship that the two countries' presidents are eager to maintain.
"It's the best example of President Obama's policy to reset relations," said Nikolai Zlobin, a Russia specialist at the World Security Institute in Washington, an independent think tank. "Reset works."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580104575361001079323076.html?m od=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESecondNews