OREANDA-NEWS. BNS agency reported that Lithuania and Russia agreed to exchange persons convicted of espionage by Moscow and Vilnius.

It is stated that the exchange list includes the Russian Nikolai Filipchenko, convicted by Vilnius 2 years ago, and Lithuanian citizens Yevgeny Mataitis and Aristidas Tamosaitis, convicted by Moscow in 2016.

Gazeta.ru site notes that the exchange of another Russian and one Norwegian is also being discussed, but their names are unknown to the media.

The interlocutors of journalists claim that the negotiations have been lasted “for many years.” The final decision was made last week, but its implementation was postponed due to legal matters.

On October 15, the head of the Sejm (Lithuanian parliament) National Security and Defense Committee, Dainius Gaizauskas, registered a bill establishing the right of the country’s president to pardon citizens convicted of espionage and their further exchange.

Aristidas Tamosaitis was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2016. He was detained in Moscow a year earlier in the act of receipt of a secret document from a Russian. The man admitted that he worked for Lithuanian intelligence service.

Evgeny Mataitis was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the same year. The officer of the reserve has been collecting secret information about the Russian Armed Forces on behalf of Lithuanian intelligence since 2009. The convict pleaded guilty.

According to TASS agency, Nikolai Filipchenko, who is called Russian Federal Security Service officer by the media, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017. Lithuania accuses him of trying to recruit security officers to organize intelligence activities against the country’s leadership.