【英语国际】美俄酝酿间谍换囚犯 为冷战后首次

In an apparent throwback to the Cold War, Moscow and Washington are discussing a deal to swap 10 of the suspected deep-cover Russian agents arrested last month in the U.S. for prisoners held in Russia, according to people familiar with the talks.

Two U.S. officials said talks about a possible plea agreement were continuing. The discussions weren't advanced enough for a deal to be imminent, but prosecutors agreed to postpone some court hearings for the alleged Russian spies while U.S. and Russian diplomats discussed an agreement.

Such a deal could result in Russia agreeing to release prisoners, one of the officials said. A scheduled hearing in Alexandria, Va., for three of the alleged spies was postponed Wednesday.

Officials at the Kremlin and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service declined to comment Wednesday.

The mother and brother of Russian physicist Igor Sutyagin, who was convicted in 2004 of spying for the U.S., said he had signed a deal to be exchanged under the agreement after prison authorities suddenly brought him to Moscow from the prison in Russia's far north, where he has been serving his 15-year sentence. Mr. Sutyagin has previously denied he was a spy; his case has been criticized by human-rights advocates and in some Western capitals as an example of Russia's spy agencies railroading innocent specialists through a compliant court system. Russian security officials reject that.

A swap deal would be the first since the end of the Cold War two decades ago. Before that, Moscow and Washington periodically exchanged captured spies, such as in 1962, when captured U.S. Air Force Pilot F. Gary Powers was swapped for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Later, the Soviet government began exchanging dissidents for its agents captured in the West.

'We're rolling back the clock,' said Yuri Ryzhov, a former Russian ambassador and prominent academic who heads a commission that has defended scholars accused of treason. 'It's the 1970s now.'

知情人士说，莫斯科和华盛顿正在就一项交易展开谈判，即把美国上个月逮捕的10名俄罗斯卧底特工嫌疑人同俄罗斯关押的囚犯互换。这俨然是回到了冷战时代。

两位美国官员说，可能会达成一项辩诉协议，有关的谈判正在进行。谈判还没有达到可以立即形成协议的阶段，但检方同意在美俄外交官谈判期间推迟这批俄罗斯间谍嫌疑人的部分庭审。

两位官员之一说，这样一种交易有可能让俄罗斯同意释放囚犯。根据原定计划，三位间谍嫌疑人的庭审将在弗吉尼亚州亚力山德里亚市举行，但在周三被推迟。

克里姆林宫和俄罗斯对外情报局的官员周三拒绝置评。

俄罗斯物理学家苏特雅金(Igor Sutyagin)曾于2004年被判为美国窃取情报，被处以15年有期徒刑。其母亲和兄弟说，他被囚犯管理部门突然从俄罗斯北方偏远地区的服刑地带回莫斯科，然后签署了一份被交换到美国的协议。苏特雅金此前曾否认自己是间谍；他的案件受到人权活动人士和西方一些政府的批评，说这是俄罗斯间谍机构利用一个惟命是从的法院系统草率审判无辜专家的例证。俄罗斯安全官员对此予以反驳。

如果达成互换协议，这将是20年前冷战结束以来的第一次。冷战期间，莫斯科和华盛顿定期交换他们抓到的间谍，比如在1962年，被俄罗斯抓到的美国空军飞行员鲍尔斯(F. Gary Powers)被同苏联间谍阿贝尔(Rudolf Abel)进行交换，回到了美国。过后，苏联政府开始用异见人士交换它在西方被捕的特工人员。

俄罗斯前大使、知名学者雷若夫(Yuri Ryzhov)说，我们正在回拨时钟，现在是20世纪70年代了。雷若夫领导的一个团体曾为被控以叛国罪的学者提供辩护。