In a largest plan after the cold war to swap spies by US and Russia, the US is deporting 10 people who spied for Moscow in exchange for four people convicted of spying in Russia.

A judge in New York ordered the immediate deportation of the 10 convicted for spying for Russia in US after they pleaded guilty to spying for a foreign country. Court also dropped serious money laundering charges against them. They are expected to arrive in Moscow on Friday morning on a flight from the US.

The US state department said after the hearing in Newyork that there would be “no significant national security benefit” in sentencing the 10 accused to lengthy jail terms. State department spokesman Mark Toner said that “The network of unlawful agents operating inside the United States has been dismantled. 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.”

At the same time, Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms control analyst serving a 14-year sentence for spying for the United States reportedly plucked from a Moscow prison and flown to Vienna. Reports say that he will be sent to London from Vienna.

Russian news reports say President Dmitry Medvedev has pardoned other three Russian prisoners also who are accused of spying for US. State news agency Itar-Tass named them as, 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 and Gennadiy Vasilenko.

“A swap seems very much on the cards. There is political will on both sides, and actually by even moving it as far as they have, Moscow has de facto acknowledged that these guys were spies,” intelligence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Thursday.

Steve Field ,a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or deny a possible London involvement in the spy swap. “This is primarily an issue for the US authorities,” he said.

[Source: BBC]