BRIDGE OF SPIES

In an echo of Cold War film, Russia and Estonia swap pair jailed for espionage

THE relief of the two spies on this snowy bridge is as palpable as the air of menace surrounding the Russian soldiers looming in the background.

In a Cold War-style scene reminiscent of the film Bridge Of Spies, Estonian Raivo Susi smiles broadly after being delivered by the pair in combat fatigues and balaclavas to a handler from his country.

Next to him, his Russian counterpart Artern Zintsenko is greeted by a Russian official after being freed by Estonia. Moments later, he was driven away to his homeland. The picture is from a video released by the Estonian Internal Security Service, recording the ‘spy swap’ at a border crossing over the River Piusa in south-east Estonia after both men received presidential pardons.

Mr Susi, who co-owns two firms involved in the sale and repair of aircraft, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February 2016 on espionage charges and sentenced to 12 years in a work camp.

Mr Zintsenko was jailed for five years in Tallinn last year after being convicted of spying for Russian military intelligence.

Estonia’s security service confirmed it had ‘ extradited’ Mr Zintsenko to Russia on Saturday, while Mr Susi ‘was able to return to his loved ones after a long retention in Russia’.

Bridge Of Spies, starring Tom Hanks, tells the story of a Cold War prisoner exchange on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin in 1962.