Swapped spy is from Cockeysville

In the largest spy swap since the Cold War, Alexander Zaporozhsky was one of four men released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents arrested in the U.S. It was unclear if or when he would return to his Cockeysville house, but in one respect, a homecoming would be bittersweet: His wife died in October while he was serving an 18-year prison sentence in their homeland. One of the couple's two grown sons now lives with his wife in his parents' home, above, and the other lives nearby, according to a next-door neighbor whose thoughts immediately turned to the young men when she heard the news of the spy swap.

"Gosh, wouldn't it be great if their father was released?" said Colleen Cavanaugh, a judge in Baltimore County's Orphans' Court. "He's done so much for this country. I hope he can come here and live a nice life."

Zaporozhsky, now 59, was a high-ranking KGB officer who was said to have provided information to U.S. authorities that helped them uncover two of the most damaging "moles" working undercover in the intelligence system, FBI agent Robert Hanssen and CIA agent Aldrich Ames.

July 9, 2010