Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he had met with Russian spies deported from the United States following Russia-U.S. spy scandal and assured them of a bright and interesting life in the future.
The ten individuals were arrested by U.S. law enforcement on June 27 on suspicion of being part of an espionage ring spying for Russia. They were quickly tried and flown out of the United States in an exchange for four people convicted of spying in Russia for the West.
"I am sure they will work in decent places, I am sure they will have an interesting and bright life," Putin told a news conference during his visit to Ukraine.
Putin said they sang patriotic songs accompanied by live music and talked about life during the meeting.
BEING A SPY IS TOUGH
Putin, a former KGB officer with experience of working abroad, said the life of a spy is very tough.
"Imagine - they have to master a foreign language as your own, think and speak it, fulfill tasks in the interests of their motherland for many years without counting on diplomatic immunity," Putin said.
He added that a comprehensive assessment of the work done by the arrested spies will be carried out by their superiors and experts.
Sources in the Russian intelligence services earlier said the deported spies would even have to take lie detector tests as part of an evaluation of their performances.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the deported spies worked in the United States since 1990s, but the FBI agents monitored their activities for many years. The U.S. authorities claim the Russian spies never stole any secrets and used open media sources to provide information to their superiors back in Moscow.
THE SPIES WERE BETRAYED
Putin reiterated on Saturday that the Russian spy network had been uncovered as a result of betrayal.
"As I said earlier, this [spy scandal] came as a result of betrayal. They [the betrayers] always end up badly taking to drink or drugs, in a gutter" he said, adding that he knew all betrayers by their names.
But he declined to answer a question whether Russia was planning to take revenge on these individuals by saying secret services lived under their own laws and it was up to them to resolve these issues.
FOROS (Ukraine), July 25 (RIA Novosti)
