VOA慢速英语2010年-IN THE NEWS - US-Russia Spy Exchange B

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Russia and the United States have completed the largest spy exchange since the Cold War. On Friday, at an airport in Vienna, Austria, an American plane and a Russian plane landed, parked side by side and exchanged occupants.

The United States freed ten admitted Russian agents. The men and women were arrested in late June and pleaded¹ guilty on Thursday.

In exchange, Russia released four Russians serving prison sentences on charges of spying for the West. The men include Igor Sutyagin, an arms researcher who always denied the charges. Some considered him a political prisoner.

The United States deported² nine Russians and an American citizen born in Peru. Some raised children while living quiet lives as married couples. An eleventh suspect disappeared after being freed on bail³ in Cyprus.

The group was accused of trying to gain information on American nuclear weapons, foreign policy and politics for the SVR -- Russia's foreign intelligence service.

Russian, front, and American airplanes used Friday in the exchange of 14 people, including four Russian prisoners, at Vienna's Schwechat airport

The way both countries are handling the issue suggests that "neither side is interested in starting a fight." So says Andrei Koztunof of the New Eurasia Foundation in Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry⁴ praised the exchange, saying, "The action was taken in the general context⁵ of improved Russian-U.S. relations."

The ten were only charged with plotting to act as undeclared foreign agents. They were not charged with the more serious crime of espionage⁶, so the extent of their success as spies is not clear.

One of the Russians, Anna Chapman, captured attention with her looks and stories of her New York party life. Her lawyer, Robert Baum, said she had not passed secret information to Russia or received any payment.

A drawing of the 10 men and women who admitted to being Russian agents in a federal court in New York

ROBERT BAUM: "The only allegations against her was that she communicated with a Russian official through a laptop to laptop communication, without the government specifying⁷ the nature of the communications."

Peruvian-born Vicki Pelaez was a columnist⁸ for a Spanish-language newspaper in New York. Her lawyer said she never knew that her husband of many years, Juan Lazaro, was really a Russian named Mikhail Vasenkov.

The arrests took place in four states: New York, New Jersey⁹, Massachusetts and Virginia. The Justice Department announced the arrests on June twenty-eighth, four days after the so-called hamburger summit¹⁰.

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordering hamburgers in Arlington, Virginia

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ate hamburgers at a restaurant near Washington. That day, Mr. Obama said the two countries had succeeded in "resetting¹¹" their relationship.

The ten Russian agents cannot return to the United States without special permission. They are also barred from making any money in the United States by selling their story.

In another development, Friday brought news of the death of Sergei Tretyakov, once Russia's top spy. He defected to the United States ten years ago. His wife and a friend said he died at his home in Florida on June thirteenth. They did not give the cause of death. Sergei Tretyakov was fifty-three years old.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
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Update: Pete Earley, who wrote a book about Sergei Tretyakov, said the former spy's wife told him he died of a heart attack. The Associated Press reported that a medical examiner's report would be completed after July 26.
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Includes reporting by Gabe Joselow, Carolyn Presutti and Carolyn Weaver
 

1 pleaded   

恳求，请求( plead的过去式和过去分词 )； 提出…为借口[理由]； （向法庭）陈述案情； （在法庭）申辩，认罪，辩护

参考例句：

• She pleaded with him not to go. 她恳求他不要离开。
• She wept and pleaded until he agreed to do as she wished. 她哭着恳求他，一直到他答应按她的愿望去做。

2 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 context   

n.背景，环境，上下文，语境

参考例句：

• You can always tell the meaning of a word from its context.你常可以从上下文中猜出词义来。
• This sentence does not seem to connect with the context.这个句子似乎与上下文脱节。

6 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

7 specifying   

v.指定( specify的现在分词 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性

参考例句：

• When we describe what the action will affect, we are specifying the noun of the sentence. 当描述动作会影响到什么时，我们指定组成句子的名词。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Procurement section only lists opportunistic infection drugs without specifying which drugs. 采购部分只说明有治疗机会性感染的药物，但并没有说明是什么药物。 来自互联网

8 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 summit   

n.最高点，峰顶；最高级会议；极点

参考例句：

• They climbed up the mountain and reached the summit.他们爬山，最终达到了山顶。
• The summit of the mountain is lost in the cloud and mist.山顶隐没在云雾之中。

11 resetting   

v.重新安放或安置( reset的现在分词 )；重拨（测量仪器指针）；为（考试、测试等）出一套新题；重新安置，将…恢复原位

参考例句：

• Range represents the maximum strain which can be recorded without resetting or replacing the strain gage. 量程表示无需重调或重装应变计就能记录到的最大应变。 来自辞典例句
• Adding weight to the puddle jumper by resetting its inertial dampeners. 通过调节飞船的惯性装置来增加重量。 来自电影对白