MOSCOW, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Russia's top court upheld the 25-year prison sentence meted out in absentia to the foreign intelligence officer who revealed a spy ring in the United States.
The court's ruling Tuesday reaffirmed a Moscow military district court decision that found 59-year-old Col. Alexander Poteyev guilty of high treason in June, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Poteyev, who was recruited by the CIA in the 1990s, fled to the United States with his family shortly before the arrests of the sleeper agents in the United States was made public.
Ten Russian nationals were arrested by law enforcement officials June 27, 2010, on suspicion of spying for Russia as part of a deep undercover espionage ring. They were tried and flown out of the United States in an exchange for four people convicted of spying in Russia for the West.
