AP sources: 2 Obama administration officials say Russians releasing 4 in spy swap

AP sources: Russians to release 4 in spy swap

WASHINGTON — The Russian government will release four people in the spy swap with the United States, two Obama administration sources said Thursday.

Word of the number of alleged spies the Russians are freeing came as 10 defendants accused of spying for Russia have told a federal judge in New York that they are pleading guilty.

An Obama administration official and an administration source both spoke on condition of anonymity because papers in the spy case are in the process of being released publicly. The two Obama administration sources would not disclose the names of those being released by Russia.

Candidates that Russia was reported to be offering in a spy swap were Igor Sutyagin, a military analyst with the U.S.A. and Canada Institute; Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence; Alexander Sypachev, a colonel in the Russian intelligence service, and Alexander Zaporozhsky, a former colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Sutyagin was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2004 on charges of passing information on nuclear submarines and other weapons to a British company that Russia claimed was a CIA cover. Skripal was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in 2006. Sypachev was sentenced in 2002 to eight years in prison on charges of passing secrets to the CIA. Zaporozhsky was sentenced in 2003 to 18 years in prison for espionage on behalf of the United States.