Russia's List of Candidates in Reported Prison Swap

Published November 17, 2014

As the U.S. and Russia engaged in what appeared to be a spy swap on Thursday, the former Soviet Union reportedly released a list of four candidates it will offer to release.

-- Igor Sutyagin, a military analyst with the U.S.A. and Canada Institute, a respected Moscow-based think-tank, was sentenced to 15 years in 2004 on charges of passing information on nuclear submarines and other weapons to a British company that Russia claimed was a CIA cover. Sutyagin has insisted on his innocence, saying the information he provided was available from open sources. His family said he had told them this week that he and other convicted spies would be exchanged for 11 arrested members of an alleged Russian spy ring in the United States.

-- Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence, was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006. He was accused of revealing the names of several dozen Russian agents working in Europe. Sutyagin told his relatives that he saw Skripal's name on the list of 11 candidates for the spy swap.

-- Alexander Sypachev, a colonel in the Russian intelligence service, sentenceed in 2002 to eight years in prison on charges of passing secrets to the CIA. He was arrested while placing an envelope containing his report in a secret location. Sypachev pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. The newspaper Kommersant cited Russian intelligence sources as saying Sypachev was included on the list of 11.

-- Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, sentenced in 2003 to 18 years in prison for espionage on behalf of the United States. Zaporozhsky quit the service in 1997 and settled in the United States; Russia enticed him back and arrested him in 2001. He was convicted on charges of passing secret information about Russian agents working under cover in the United States and about American sources working for Russian intelligence. Kommersant reported that Zaporozhsky is also on the list of swap candidates.

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