Spy swap: US and Russia hand over agents in full media glare
At least one freed western spy to remain in UK after Vienna tarmac exchange for 10 Russian 'sleepers' caught in US
Moscow and Washington orchestrated the biggest and least secret spy swap in decades today, a face-saving handover that transferred 10 Russian "sleepers" arrested in America last week to Russia in return for four alleged double agents.
In the less-than-glamorous setting of a sweltering airport tarmac in Vienna, the 14 agents switched planes in a simple but significant hour-long manoeuvre intended to ensure that US-Russian relations were not derailed by the exposure of Russia's deep-cover agents in suburban America. It wasn't quite Checkpoint Charlie or the Glienicke bridge in Berlin, famous for cold war-era spy swaps. But it was Vienna, with its rich history of espionage intrigue, to which can now be added a curious footnote.
Tonight the agents had their first taste of a new life in the country of their sympathy. The Russian 10, deported from New York on Thursday, landed at Domodedovo airport south of Moscow to an uncertain future. The four westward-bound agents touched down at Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire. It is thought that at least one of them, Sergei Skripal, a former informant for MI6, will stay in Britain.
The 10 sleepers were accused of embedding themselves in ordinary American society while leading double lives, complete with false passports, secret code words, fake names, invisible ink and encrypted radio. Three of the couples had children, some of which were left behind in America as they flew to Moscow.
Because they were not high-value assets in Russian foreign intelligence, the deep-cover agents were not expected to get a heroic welcome in Moscow. But Kremlin insiders said they would not be forgotten either, amid reports that they had been offered apartments and up to $2,000 a month in living allowances.
