The suspects agreed to be deported to Russia. In turn, Russia agreed to release four people imprisoned for suspected contact with Western intelligence agencies, the US justice department said.
The swap helped resolve a scandal that threatened to strain US-Russian relations and revealed shocking details about 10 people living double lives as ordinary citizens while trying to infiltrate US policymaking circles.
They were so-called "illegals," those who work under deep cover to infiltrate a foreign country with the task of setting up an intelligence-gathering network.
In New York, each of the suspects was sentenced to time already served -- 11 days since their arrests on June 27 -- and had separate charges of money-laundering dropped.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said the investigation was not done to gain a "bargaining chip" with Russia.
"With the arrests and guilty pleas in this case it would appear that the Russian Federation is unlikely to engage in this methodology in the future, and that is a good thing," Bharara told reporters.
"These arrests and prosecution send a message to every other intelligence agency that if you come to America and spy on Americans in America, you will be exposed and arrested."
Both the Kremlin and the administration of President Barack Obama sought to prevent the arrests from affecting relations that had been improving after hitting lows with Russia's 2008 war against Georgia.
Russian officials promised one of the suspects, Vicky Pelaez, that she could go to any country, including her native Peru, with a monthly stipend of $2,000 for life plus visas for her children, her defense lawyer told the court.
"The United States has agreed to transfer these individuals to the custody of the Russian Federation," the Justice Department said in a statement.
"In exchange, the Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies."
Convicted of treason
Three of the prisoners Russia agreed to release were convicted of treason and serving long prison terms, Justice Department prosecutors said in a letter to the federal judge who heard the spy case.
Some of the prisoners, who were not identified, were in poor health, the prosecutors said, and the Russian government agreed to release them and their family members for resettlement.
Some worked for the Russian military or intelligence agencies and three had been accused of contacting Western intelligence agencies, the US officials said.
In Moscow, relatives anxiously awaited word from a jailed Russian scholar they said was to be sent to Vienna on Thursday in the first stage of a the swap.
It was unclear whether Igor Sutyagin, convicted in 2004 of passing secrets to the West, had arrived in Austria as part of what his lawyer said Sutyagin was told would be a exchange for Russian agents arrested in the United States.
Relatives, a rights activist and the lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, told Reuters that Sutyagin's father was called by a Western television company and told Sutyagin was seen arriving in Vienna and being met by a British officer.
But they said they had no confirmation from officials or Sutyagin himself.
Sutyagin, a respected nuclear expert, was convicted in 2004 of passing classified military information to a British firm that Russian prosecutors said was a front for the CIA.
He said the information was available from open sources and his conviction cast a chill on Russian scientists.
Kremlin critics called it part of a crackdown on scholars with Western ties under then-President Vladimir Putin, a long-time KGB officer who often accused the West of seeking to weaken Russi
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