Spy-swap hatched in Oval Office weeks before arrests

The largest US-Russian spy swap since the Cold War happened less than a month after an idea was secretly hatched in the Oval Office, and reached fruition on a remote stretch of Vienna airport tarmac.

The exchange took place early yesterday in a choreographed script of spy novel intrigue. Two planes, one from New York, the other from Moscow, arrived within minutes of each other and parked nose-to-tail.