Expelled Russian spies 'living in Britain'

Two Russian spies expelled from their homeland have been removed to Britain where they are apparently staying on the outskirts of London.

They were among the four convicted of spying for the West and exchanged for 10 Russian agents deported from the US in a historic spy swap.

Igor Sutyagin was said by his brother to have got off a US-bound flight in Britain along with fellow spy Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who passed state secrets to Britain.

They were in a hotel with no visas and still wearing prison clothes, Dmitry Sutyagin said from his home in Obninsk, 35 miles outside Moscow.

"He said he's in a small town on the outskirts of London but where exactly he doesn't know because when he was taken there he wasn't told anything," Mr Sutyagin told the Associated Press.

His brother had been given a telephone card in order to call his wife but did not yet have a British entry visa, so his movements were limited at the moment, he said.

The four deported from Russia have been pardoned by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev so there is speculation they may be able to return to the country.

However, Sutyagin plans to take his time to consider what he would do next, his brother said.

"He thinks he needs to take stock and consider what's going on in Russia, in England," Mr Sutyagin said.