US and Russia reach agreement on 'spy exchange'

A adjudicator in New York ordered their actual displacement afterwards they pleaded accusable to spying for a adopted country.

More austere money bed-making accuse adjoin them were dropped.

Russian account letters say President Dmitry Medvedev has pardoned the four Russian prisoners.

The mother of Anna Chapman, one of the 10 Russian agents, said she accepted her to fly home to Russia on Friday.

The 10 pleaded accusable to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered abettor of a adopted country".

Their New York cloister actualization was the aboriginal time they had all appeared in accessible calm back actuality arrested aftermost month.

Prosecutors said the accused had airish as accustomed citizens, some active calm as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to access authoritative circles and aggregate information.

Court abstracts appear - allegedly for the aboriginal time - the absolute names of bristles of the Russians involved:

* "Richard Murphy" and "Cynthia Murphy" accepted they were Russian citizens called Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev

* "Donald Howard Heathfield" and "Tracey Lee Ann Foley" accepted they were Russian citizens called Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova

* "Juan Lazaro" accepted that he was a Russian aborigine called Mikhail Vasenkov

"Michael Zottoli" and "Patrica Mills" had accepted beforehand they were Russian citizens called Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko had allegedly operated in the US beneath their own names, while Vicky Pelaez was built-in in Peru.

An 11th doubtable accepted as "Christopher Metsos" went missing afterwards actuality appear on bond in Cyprus, area he had been arrested.

The US accompaniment administration said afterwards the audition that there would be "no cogent civic aegis benefit" in sentencing the 10 to diffuse bastille terms.

"The arrangement of actionable agents operating central the United States has been dismantled," agent Mark Toner said, afore adding: "The United States took advantage of the befalling presented to defended the absolution of four individuals confined diffuse bastille agreement in Russia, several of whom were in poor health."

Moved to Moscow

One of the Russian prisoners accepted to be freed by Moscow is nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, who was beforehand transferred to Moscow from a bastille abreast the Arctic Circle.

He told his ancestors in Moscow that he would be aureate to Vienna on Thursday and appear as allotment of a accord amid the US and Russian governments.

Earlier, Sutyagin's advocate was quoted by Russian media as adage he had accustomed in the Austrian capital, but his ancestor Vyacheslav denied the reports.

Austrian admiral accept neither accepted nor denied the reports.

Sutyagin was confined in Russia in 2004 for spying for the CIA.

His brother Dmitry said Igor had been told by Russian admiral that his absolution would be allotment of a spy swap, and that US admiral had been present at a meeting.

Dmitry added that his brother had apparent a account of about 10 Russian prisoners that the US had accustomed Moscow - and that it included Sergei Skripal, a Russian aggressive intelligence (GRU) administrator bedevilled of spying for the UK in 2006.

Russian bi-weekly Kommersant said the account additionally included Alexander Zaporozhsky, a above agent of Russia's Adopted Intelligence who was confined for 18 years for espionage in 2003, and Alexander Sypachev, bedevilled in 2002 to eight years in bastille for spying for the CIA.