THE US and Russia ended a two-week espionage drama between their countries yesterday with a brisk spy-swap in Vienna, straight out of a Cold War thriller.
Some 10 convicted Russian agents were exchanged for four agents from western intelligence shortly after noon in Vienna. After about an hour on Austrian soil, and having no physical contact with local authorities, the two jets took off in opposite directions.
The final act in this spy drama began late on Thursday night in a New York court where all 10 suspects, arrested by the FBI on June 28th, pleaded guilty to being unregistered foreign agents.
Richard and Cynthia Murphy, who lived in New Jersey, identified themselves as agents named Vladimir and Lydia Guryev.
One by one the agents, and showing little sign of emotion, unmasked themselves to the court in their first joint public appearance. Three defendants said they did not adopt false identities, including Anna Chapman, the red-head femme fatale of the affair.
The US prosecutor said the 10 had posed as ordinary citizens under orders from Russia’s External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate influential US circles and collect information.
None of the defendants were charged with espionage, reportedly because they did not have access to classified information.
Prosecutors said they would drop money-laundering charges against eight of the accused. In return, they agreed to return to the US in the future only with explicit government permission.
As part of the deportation deal, they agreed to forfeit their homes in the US and turn over all earnings from selling their stories to the media. All agents were sentenced to time served and deported.
After the hearing, lawyers for the accused played down their clients’ importance. “None of the people involved from my understanding provided any information that couldn’t be obtained on the internet,” said Robert Baum, lawyer for Anna Chapman.
“She never accepted money. She never did any transfers. In fact, the only time that she was ever asked to do anything – by an undercover FBI agent – she refused to do it.”
One of the accused, Vicky Pelaez, has reportedly been promised free housing and a lifetime monthly allowance of $2,000 (€1,580) by the Russian authorities. However, her lawyer said she is expected to move to Peru with her children, who were in court for the deportation hearing.
A spokesman for the US justice department said yesterday that eight children of the defendants, including six minors, were free to leave the US with their parents, but declined to say whether they were on the flight to Vienna.
After the hearing, the US justice department confirmed in a statement that “it has agreed to transfer these individuals to the custody of the Russian Federation. In exchange, the Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with western intelligence agencies.”
Around midnight in Moscow, the Kremlin announced that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had signed pardons releasing four men convicted on spy charges. They included nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin, imprisoned for 11 years for spying in 1999, and Sergei Skripal, serving the fourth year of a 13-year sentence after being convicted of spying for Britain.
After tense days, Washington and Moscow were at pains yesterday to present the spy-swap as a minor distraction on the road to better bilateral relations.
“This agreement gives reason to hope that the course agreed upon by Russia and the United States will be realised accordingly in practice,” said a Kremlin statement, “and that attempts to derail the course will not succeed.”
Double deadling: Austria can 'neither confirm nor deny' an operation took place
WOULD Harry Lime have approved? The anti-hero of The Third Mandid more than most to establish Vienna's reputation as a Cold War espionage capital to rival Berlin.
But yesterday’s spy-swap – in 30 degree heat at Vienna airport – was a far cry from the slimy sewers favoured by Graham Greene’s tragic creation.
With the world’s media watching, some 14 alleged US and Russian spies joined mad dogs and Englishmen in stepping out in the midday sun.
“The planes both landed at around 11.15 and parked door-to-door, away from the terminal,” said Austrian photographer Andi Schiel.
Within minutes, a truck pulled up and began refuelling the aircraft – a “Vision Airlines” jet from the US, and a Russian craft from “State Unitary Air Enterprise”.
Later, several people could be seen moving from one jet to the other – doctors or officials completing paper work? – before a small black van appeared, presumably to complete the swap.
Around 12.30pm, the Russian craft took off for Moscow, followed 15 minutes later by the US jet. After less than 90 minutes, the world’s biggest spy-swap since the end of the Cold War was over.
It was a far cry from the legendary encounters on Berlin’s Glienicke Bridge. Between 1962 and 1986, on three separate occasions, the Cold War powers exchanged some 38 agents there.
By comparison, yesterday’s mysterious bit of business in sunny Vienna was dubbed “The Dance of the Agents” by the Krone tabloid.
An Austrian government spokesman refused to confirm that no Austrian police were involved in an operation which he then refused even to confirm had ever happened.
“That’s not our story,” he said, “so we can neither confirm nor deny.”
The Viennese are optimistic that yesterday’s spy swap won’t be the last: as home to many international institutions, including the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Austria’s secret service report that the country remains a “significant operation area for foreign intelligence services”.
In the two decades to 2009, Austrian agents have got wind of around 250 secret service operations taking place on Austrian soil.
