A Russian researcher convicted of spying for U.S. intelligence services could be exchanged for one of the suspects in the recent Russian spy scandal in the United States, according to a human rights activist who has spoken with the researcher's mother.

Ernst Chyorny, a member of the Public Committee in Defense of Scientists in Russia, told CNN on Wednesday that the mother of Igor Sutyagin, the convicted Russian spy, told him about the development.

Russia convicted Sutyagin in 2004 for spying for the United States. Chyorny said Sutyagin's mother visited her son at Moscow's Lefortovo prison Wednesday morning where he had been transferred from his prison camp in Russia's northern Archangel region.

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