Russian Deportees Held in Limbo After Spy Swap

MOSCOW -- Two of the four Russians expelled from the country in a historic spy swap are in a hotel somewhere outside London with no British visas, according to the brother of one of them.

Igor Sutyagin, an arms researcher, was still in prison clothes, without money or plans, pondering whether to remain in the country or return to his homeland, his brother told the Associated Press on Saturday. Sutyagin briefly called his wife, Irina Manannikova, Saturday,in the first contact with his family since his deportation, said the brother, Dmitry Sutyagin.

"He said he's in a small town on the outskirts of London but where exactly he doesn't know because when he was taken there he wasn't told anything," Dmitry Sutyagin told the AP at his home in Obninsk, about 35 miles southwest of Moscow.

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence who was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain, is in the same hotel, Dmitry Sutyagin said.

Sutyagin, Skripal and two other Russians convicted of spying for the West were exchanged Friday in Vienna for 10 Russian agents deported from the United States.

The four expelled by Russia were then flown to Britain and the plane later went to the United States. Sutyagin and Skripal got off the plane in Britain.

Sutyagin was given a telephone card to make the call and there was no way to call him back, the brother said. Telephone cards often mask the number being called from so that it does not register on caller identification systems.

Sutyagin does not yet have a British entry visa, which limits his freedom to move, but expects to have one soon, his brother said.

"He hopes that after weekend, all these formalities will be settled," Dmitry Sutyagin said.

Then come tougher decisions. Sutyagin and the other three Russians were pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev before being expelled, raising the possibility they could be allowed to return to Russia. Sutyagin did not want to leave the country but is unsure whether to try to return, his brother said.

"He thinks he needs to take stock and consider what's going on in Russia, in England," Dmitry Sutyagin said.

Sutyagin was arrested in 1999 and convicted in 2004 of spying. Authorities said he provided information about nuclear submarines to a British company alleged to be a CIA front. Sutyagin maintained his innocence, saying all the information he provided was available from open sources.

Sutyagin had been imprisoned near Arkhangelsk, in Russia's far northwest. According to his brother, Sutyagin met with Russian and U.S. officials in the prison Monday and was told he would be sent to Britain in the swap. He was forced to sign a confession, his brother said, and then was brought to Moscow.