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Lithuania, Russia to swap prisoners sentenced for spying, media reports say

According to the Baltic News Service, negotiations had lasted for about a year, while Vilnius okayed the move last week

VILNIUS, October 16. /TASS/. Lithuania and Russia agreed a spy exchange deal, the Baltic News Service (BNS) said on Wednesday.

According to BNS sources, "Lithuania is to transfer Nikolai Filipchenko, a Russian Federal Security Service agent convicted two years ago, in exchange for Yevgeny Mataitis and Aristidas Tamosaitis, two Lithuanian citizens convicted in Russia in 2016." Also, a Norwegian citizen sentenced in Russia and another Russian citizen were included in the swap deal.

The BNS reported that the negotiations had lasted for about a year, while Vilnius okayed the move last week at a session of Lithuania’s State Defense Council chaired by President Gitanas Nauseda.

In 2017 Russian citizen Filipchenko, who allegedly worked for the Russian Federal Security Service, was handed a ten-year prison term for espionage. Vilnius claimed that he was allegedly attempting to recruit employees of the Lithuanian VIP Protection Department. His aim was to install special equipment to spy on the country’s top officials. Filipchenko dismissed the accusations and stressed that he had caused no damage to Lithuania.

A Russian court said that in 2009 Yevgeny Mataitis, a retired navy captain who had a dual citizenship of Lithuania and Russia, was recruited by the Lithuanian Defense Ministry’s intelligence department to gather information about Russia’s Armed Forces for money. He had been collecting and passing on classified military information for six years. At the trial, Mataitis confirmed the facts of recruitment and espionage and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail.

The Lithuanian citizen Tamosaitis, jailed for 12 years in Russia for spying, was detained in May 2015 in Moscow while receiving classified documents from a Russian national. Having been shown the evidence, he confessed to spying.