My Daily Inquirer

Ten Russian spy suspects in New York will be expelled from the United States in short order in exchange for the release of four Russian prisoners accused of spying for the United States, federal officials said Thursday.

In a case reminiscent of the Cold War, the expulsions are part of a plea agreement between Russia and the United States in which the four individuals in Russia will be released to the United States, the Justice Department said.

The announcement came moments after the 10 suspects pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to failing to register as foreign agents.

"The Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies," the Justice Department said Thursday in a letter to Wood.

"Three of the Russian prisoners were convicted of treason in the form of espionage on behalf of a foreign power and are serving lengthy prison terms. The Russian prisoners have all served a number of years in prison and some are in poor health. The Russian government has agreed to release the Russian prisoners and their family members for resettlement."

The letter said the government was entering into the deal in consideration of two things: the defendants' guilty pleas and execution of a U.S.-Russian agreement.

A footnote reads: "In addition, other parts of the broader agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation include the specific mechanisms for implementing the agreement, and other steps designed to further United States-Russia relations and to enhance the national security of the United States. These parts of the United States-Russia Agreement were not discussed with the defendants or their counsel by the United States."

"Some of the Russian prisoners worked for the Russian military, and/or for various Russian intelligence agencies. Three of the Russian prisoners have been accused by Russia of contacting Western intelligence agencies while they were working for the Russian (or Soviet) government."

Under the plea agreements, the defendants disclosed their true identities in court and forfeited assets attributable to the criminal offenses, the Justice Department said in a news release.

"The defendants known as 'Richard Murphy' and 'Cynthia Murphy' admitted they are Russian citizens named Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev and are agents of the Russian Federation," it said.

"Defendants 'Michael Zottoli' and 'Patricia Mills' admitted they are Russian citizens named Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, and are agents of the Russian Federation;

"Defendants 'Donald Howard Heathfield' and 'Tracey Lee Ann Foley' admitted they are Russian citizens named Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, and are agents of the Russian Federation;

"'Juan Lazaro' admitted that he is a Russian citizen named Mikhail Anatonoljevich Vasenkov and is an agent of the Russian Federation; Defendants Vicky Pelaez, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko, who operated in the United States under their true names, admitted that they are agents of the Russian Federation; and Chapman and Semenko admitted they are Russian citizens," the Justice Department said.

"This was an extraordinary case, developed through years of work by investigators, intelligence lawyers and prosecutors, and the agreement we reached today provides a successful resolution for the United States and its interests," Attorney General Eric Holder said.

The pleas came as part of a deal with the U.S. government that U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood accepted late in the day. Before accepting their pleas, Wood told the suspects and their attorneys it was her understanding that each of the accused wished to plead guilty. An attorney for each of the alleged spies stood up one by one and answered, "Yes."

A man convicted of spying for the United States in 2004 and possibly on a list for the swap -- left Russia Thursday and arrived in Vienna, Austria, Russia's state-run news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The scientist's family told CNN he was part of the exchange.

Thursday's hearing combined the five suspects arrested in New York with five others picked up out of state.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, had ordered that Semenko, Kutsik and Pereverzeva be moved to New York "promptly," according to court documents.

Bezrukov and Vavilova were moved to New York from Boston, Massachusetts, on orders of a federal judge there.

Prosecutors said that Kutsik and Pereverzeva admitted being Russian citizens living under assumed names soon after being arrested. Authorities found evidence to support that information, prosecutors said.

Semenko is accused of aiding the plot by allegedly using private wireless computer links to communicate with a Russian government official, court documents said.

In all, 10 suspects were arrested in the United States in connection with the alleged spy plot. An 11th suspect was detained in Cyprus and released on bail. His whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Igor Sutyagin, who was convicted in Russia in 2004 for spying for U.S. intelligence services, said Sutyagin arrived Thursday in Vienna, RIA-Novosti reported.

Attorney Anna Stavitskaya said her client could be part of a swap involving the suspected Russian spies detained in the United States in late June.

"Igor's father received a phone call at approximately 16:30 Moscow time (8:30 a.m. ET), and he was told that he [Sutyagin] was seen getting off a plane in Vienna," the news agency quoted her as saying.

Sutyagin's mother and brother have raised the possibility that he could be exchanged for one of the spy suspects in the United States. They talked to him on Wednesday at a prison in Moscow.

Svetlana Sutyagina told CNN Wednesday that her son said he was to be released Thursday from jail and sent to London, England, by way of Vienna. According to Sutyagina, her son was on a list of 11 names submitted by the United States for the exchange of the Russians detained in the alleged spy ring in the United States. She said her son remembers just one other name on this list -- Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer sentenced for spying.

Igor Sutyagin was convicted in 2004 of passing secret data to members of U.S. intelligence services acting as employees of a British company called Alternative Futures, in exchange for monetary rewards in 1998-1999.

But in Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner denied Thursday that Igor Sutyagin was a spy.

The former arms-control researcher with the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences was convicted in 2004 on espionage-related charges. He has been serving a 15-year sentence in a maximum-security prison in Russia's far north for allegedly passing classified information about Russia's nuclear weapons to a London-based firm.

Human rights groups consider him a political prisoner and have said that he had no access to classified information. By convicting him, the rights groups have said, the Russian government was trying to intimidate others from sharing sensitive information with other countries.