US and Russian 'spy exchange' under wayThe US has deported 10 Russian agents as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Moscow. A flight carrying the f

The US has deported 10 Russian agents as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Moscow.

A flight carrying the five men and five women left New York after a judge ordered their expulsion during a court hearing at which they admitted spying for a foreign country.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has pardoned four people convicted of espionage in Russia.

They reportedly submitted a plea for pardon admitting their guilt.

The Kremlin named the four as:

• Igor Sutyagin, a nuclear scientist jailed in 2004 for spying for the CIA
• Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the UK in 2006
• Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former employee of Russia's foreign intelligence service jailed for espionage in 2003
• Gennadiy Vasilenko, reportedly a former KGB agent

It is unclear where the flight carrying the 10 Russian agents will land, or where the prisoners being freed by Moscow will be released.

Unconfirmed reports suggest some form of handover may take place in the Austrian capital Vienna.

A senior Russian official was quoted by Agence France-Presse news agency as saying the Russian agents were expected to arrive back in their homeland on Friday.

'Conspiracy'

The 10 Russian agents pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country". More serious money laundering charges against them were dropped.

AT THE SCENE

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Madeleine Morris,
BBC News, New York

The 10 agents appeared sombre in court. Two of the accused, married couples, comforted each other, holding hands and smiling.

There was a glimpse of the life that awaits the 10 when they are immediately returned to the country they tried to provide information to.

The lawyer for one of the agents, Vicky Pelaez, said Russian officials had promised her a lifetime monthly payment of $2,000, free housing, and all-expenses-paid visits from her children.

It is unclear if the other nine were given a similar deal.

Russian agents downbeat in court Vienna: playground for spies

Their New York court appearance was the first time they had all appeared in public together since being arrested last month.

Prosecutors said the accused had posed as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate policy-making circles and collect information.

BBC Washington correspondent Kevin Connolly says there is broad agreement in the US that the agents are being deported swiftly because neither government wants this to damage attempts to reset their often prickly relationship.

Court documents revealed the real names of five of the Russians involved:

• "Richard Murphy" and "Cynthia Murphy" admitted they were Russian citizens named Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev
• "Donald Howard Heathfield" and "Tracey Lee Ann Foley" admitted they were Russian citizens named Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova
• "Juan Lazaro" admitted that he was a Russian citizen named Mikhail Vasenkov

"Michael Zottoli" and "Patricia Mills" had admitted earlier they were Russian citizens named Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko had apparently operated in the US under their own names, while Vicky Pelaez was born in Peru.

An 11th suspect known as "Christopher Metsos" went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus, where he had been arrested.

Moved to Moscow

The US state department said after the hearing that there would be "no significant national security benefit" in sentencing the 10 to lengthy jail terms.

EAST-WEST PRISONER SWAPS

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• 1962: KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel freed by US in exchange for Gary Powers, pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over the USSR in 1960
• 1969: UK frees Soviet agents Peter and Helen Kroger for Gerald Brooke, jailed for spying in USSR
• 1981: Guenter Guillaume, agent for East Germany's Stasi, exchanged for Western agents
• 1985: US agents held in Eastern Europe handed over in return for a top Polish agent, Marian Zacharski, and three others held in West
• 1986: Soviet dissident Anatoly Sharansky and three Western agents swapped for KGB husband-and-wife spies Karl and Hana Koecher and two other agents

History repeats itself as farce Who is on the 'spy-swap' list?

"The network of unlawful agents operating inside the United States has been dismantled," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"The United States took advantage of the opportunity presented to secure the release of four individuals serving lengthy prison terms in Russia, several of whom were in poor health."

The lawyer for Anna Chapman played down the importance of the Russian group's espionage in the US.

Robert Baum told Associated Press: "None of the people involved from my understanding provided any information that couldn't be obtained on the internet."

The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement saying that the exchange by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service and the US Central Intelligence Agency was being conducted in the context of "overall improvement of the US-Russian ties and giving them new dynamics".

One of the Russian prisoners pardoned by Moscow, nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, was earlier transferred to Moscow from a prison near the Arctic Circle.

He reportedly told his family in Moscow that he would be flown to Vienna and released as part of a deal between the US and Russian governments.