Germany frees Russian spy early in rumoured swap

A Russian spy jailed in Germany with her husband has been freed early and allowed to return home, reports said, suggesting a possible prisoner swap.

The woman, 48, known only by the pseudonym Heidrun Anschlag, was freed two days ago while her husband, 53, known as Andreas, remained in detention, the DPA news agency and magazine reported.

The man was jailed in July last year for 6½ years and his wife for 5½ years by the higher regional court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart.

The pair were planted in former West Germany from 1988 by the Soviet Union's KGB secret service and later worked for its successor, the SVR, the court heard.

The couple obtained Nato and EU political and military secrets, focused especially on the relationship of Nato and the EU with Eastern European and Central Asian countries.

In true cold-war style, documents were left under trees and at other prearranged spots to be picked up by operatives at the Russian consulate in Bonn, the capital of what was then West Germany.