Two deported Russian spies file property claim against U.S.

[News_Editor]

Two deported Russian spies file property claim against U.S.

2011-03-28 23:00:42 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Two members of a Russian spy ring, disrupted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last year, on Monday filed property claim against the United States in Moscow, RIA Novosti reported.

Two of the ten deported members of the spy ring demanded the U.S. that some of the property they were forced to leave behind after they were captured to be returned to them.

Vladimir and Lidia Guryev, better known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy, were swapped along other suspected spies for four alleged U.S. spies held in Russia. The couple was ordered to never return to U.S. soil and authorities seized their properties.

Vladimir demanded the return of money in a bank account totaling around $190,000, as well as three cars, computers, cameras and other equipment. The Guryevs also asked for the return of the data recorded in photo and video cameras which is "dear to them."

In June 2010, the FBI detained twelve Russian nationals in relation with a spy ring. After a long investigation the FBI determined that the 12 people acted as unregistered agents for the Russian government, sending secret messages and following orders received from Russian contacts.

A colonel from the Russian foreign intelligence agency, surnamed Shcherbakov, was the agent who helped the U.S. to break up the Russian spy ring. He was the head of a department responsible to plant secret agents deep under cover in the U.S., but he resigned in June and fled to America, days before the spies were arrested.

Ten of them, while in U.S. custody, entered plea deals as part of a diplomatic agreement to swap them for U.S. operatives held in Russian on spying charges in which was the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

Russia has been involved in other espionage cases in Europe and the U.S. in recent times. In March, a Munich, Germany court sentenced an Austrian soldier to a one-year suspended prison term for spying for the Russian secret service from 1997 to 2002.

In January, a Russian diplomat was expelled from Ireland for his involvement in the production of six fake Irish passports used for an espionage ring.

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