and former russian colonel sergei skripal was arrested in 2004 and convicted of spying for britain. he is apparently in poor health. white house officials said today they considered a swap even before the ten sleeper agents were arrested. after the arrests, cia director leon panetta reportedly approached his russian counterpart with the swap proposal. georgetown university professor charles kupchan said today he thinks ultimately the deal was good for the u.s.-russia relationship. >> i think that we have to proceed with eyes wide open. russia may go back to being an aggressor state but at this point the trend lines are still positive ones. the stakes are so high that i think the obama administration is doing the right thing by trying to pov as quickly as possible to contain the spy scandal and prevent it from getting in the way of improving cooperation between the u.s. and russia. >> woodruff: but kramer had a different perspective on