Article published in Le Figaro 10 July 2010.
The exchange agents took place yesterday afternoon at the airport in Vienna, a center of espionage during the Cold War. But the spirit of suspicion that existed previously between Russians and Americans was a mere shadow of himself. The screenplay written quickly slide by U.S. authorities and Russia in recent days has proceeded as planned.
few hours after the swap, ten Russian spies arrested by U.S. authorities on June 28 landed in Moscow. They had left New York on Thursday evening, immediately after a summary trial in which they all admitted participating in a "conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without being duly registered."
Meanwhile, in Moscow in the middle of the night, the president Dmitry Medvedev pardoned four Russian citizens who were serving long prison sentences, three of them for spying the benefit of Western powers: the scientist Igor Sutyagin, weapons expert, was arrested in 1999, Aleksander Zaporojski, former agent of Russia's foreign intelligence service, jailed since 2003, and Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel sentenced in 2006 to thirteen years in prison.
Russian media was explained yesterday, however, the presence of evil Gennady Vasilenko on the list of pardoned. The former KGB agent ephemeral was first arrested in 1989 on suspicion of having ties with the CIA and released the following year. Converted into private security, he was arrested and tried again in 2006, ostensibly for illegal possession of weapons.
During the two weeks would have taken the spy scandal, the White House and the Kremlin have proved generous with comments. Once the problem is solved, they did not hide their relief at having managed to avoid the pitfalls that could have been yet another chill in relations still fragile between the two countries.
"This action has been accomplished in the overall context of improving US-Russian relations," has made it clear that the Russian Foreign Ministry in a terse statement issued yesterday morning.
For Russians, the spy incident is now closed. In their view, the links between Washington and Moscow could even emerge strengthened.
Privacy
In Moscow, experts suggest to be official since the beginning of the scandal that the arrest of spies was primarily designed to destabilize the Obama Administration. Conservative elements within the security apparatus and the U.S. would want to bother the president and prevent a Russo-American rapprochement.
If the White House was pleased also that the scandal espionage has been resolved so quickly, she warned her that she did not drop our guard, however. In an interview on public television PBS, the chief of staff to President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, said that the arrest of spies "sends a clear signal, not only Russia but other countries who want to try (to send spies), as we watch them. "
Attention will now turn to the ex-spy and their new life. Vicky Pelaez, the Peruvian-born journalist who is the only non-Russian spies of the 10 deported to Moscow yesterday, was offered, according to his lawyer, free housing in the Russian capital, visas for her children and a lifetime pension of $ 2,000. She said she had rather return to his homeland.
Better not wait no longer on the shelves a story of espionage signed Anna Chapman, the 28 year old redhead whose privacy has been widely spread in the press before leaving the United States, the ten officers had to sign a document forbidding them to reveal details of their life as a spy for commercial purposes.
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