Russia considers exchange of convicted spies with Germany

Moscow may exchange a married couple convicted in Germany for spying for Russia with a CIA agent jailed in Russia, the couple's lawyer said Monday.

A German court found Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag, also known as Pete and Tina, guilty of spying for Russia, and sentenced them to prison for six and a half years and five and a half years, respectively, on July 2.

Neither of the two admitted the charges, nor Russia has officially confirmed that they had worked as its agents.

The couple's defense lawyer Horst-Dieter Petschke told a local newspaper that the couple could be returned to Russia.

Their exchange could happen "any moment," and it has been under discussion since the verdict was delivered on July 2, Petschke said.

According to the trial documents, the Anschlags were planted by the Soviet Union's KGB secret service in former West Germany in 1988, and later worked for Russia's military foreign intelligence service GRU.

According to the newspaper, most likely candidates for the swap includes former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel Valery Mikhailov, sentenced in 2012 to 18 years in jail for passing secret data to the CIA.

Another candidate could be Andrei Dumenkov jailed in 2006 for 12 years for attempting to pass data on Russian missiles to Germany.