![]() They said the four men released by Moscow were more serious individuals than the 10 agents handed over by the US. ![]() Though one Russian website dubbed today'stransfer "Russia 10 USA 4", western intelligence sources were claiming tonight that Britain and the US got more out of the spy swap than Russia. I'm sure they will continue to get financial support from the SVR and usually the state provides apartments and other material help in such cases." So they will find work in the same professional specialisations as they had in America and live openly without pseudonyms. "But these were ordinary people recruited as agents. "If they had been professional espionage operatives whose cover was blown then they might have been sent to work in closed training establishments run by the intelligence services," he said. Sergei Markov, a political analyst with close ties to the Kremlin, said he expected the agents returning to Russia would swiftly adapt to their new lives. ![]() She has reportedly expressed an interest in moving back to London, although her conviction in the US means this is unlikely. 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.Īmong the 10 returned to Moscow tonight was Anna Chapman, a 28-year-old former Barclays Bank employee who spent several years working in London. Three of the couples had children, some of which were left behind in America as they flew to Moscow.īecause they were not high-value assets in Russian foreign intelligence, the deep-cover agents were not expected to get a heroic welcome in Moscow. 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. It is thought that at least one of them, Sergei Skripal, a former informant for MI6, will stay in Britain. The four westward-bound agents touched down at Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire. The Russian 10, deported from New York on Thursday, landed at Domodedovo airport south of Moscow to an uncertain future. Tonight the agents had their first taste of a new life in the country of their sympathy. But it was Vienna, with its rich history of espionage intrigue, to which can now be added a curious footnote. It wasn't quite Checkpoint Charlie or the Glienicke bridge in Berlin, famous for cold war-era spy swaps. 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.
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