Officials for both governments declined to confirm that a deal was in the works.
But a Russian lawyer involved in the affair said a swap was discussed and a US official said Washington might allow the suspected spies to plead guilty and then return to Russia in exchange for the release of certain Russian prisoners.
'It's a common practice. It's been done numerous times,' the official said.
Quick guilty pleas would avoid lengthy trials that officials fear may undercut improving US-Russia relations.
The two countries are co-operating on Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, the global standoff over Iran's nuclear program and other issues.
The Russian lawyer said the proposed plan includes exchanging Russian nuclear expert Igor Sutyagin, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2004 for passing classified military information to a British firm that prosecutors said was a front for the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The alleged Russian spy ring has been front page news in the US after counter-intelligence agents arrested 10 people last month on suspicion of acting as deep-cover members of a network sent to infiltrate US policymaking circles.
An 11th suspect was arrested in Cyprus, but later disappeared after being granted bail.
Federal prosecutors in New York today unsealed a grand jury indictment charging all the suspects with acting as unregistered foreign agents and nine of them with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Three suspects held in Virginia and two in Boston were ordered to be sent to Manhattan, court papers said. Two of the Virginia detainees have admitted they were in the US under fake names, according to prosecutors.
Only one of the 10 suspects in US custody, Vicky Pelaez, has been granted release pending trial.
The government has appealed that decision but no time has yet been fixed for a bail hearing. Ms Pelaez works as a columnist for the New York Spanish-language daily El Diario.
Both US and Russian officials have vowed that the spy case will not set back the broader relationship, and US officials appeared eager to play it down.
News of the possible swap emerged after Sutyagin was suddenly moved this week from a prison in Kholmogory, in Russia's northern region of Arkhangelsk, to Moscow's high-security Lefortovo prison and allowed to see his family.
Sutyagin told his family, including brother Dmitry, of the plans to exchange him for the accused in the US in a swap that would involve travel to Vienna and London.
Dmitry said Sutyagin had seen a list of names of other people who would be swapped. One name on the list was Skripal - a likely reference to Sergei Skripal, a Russian officer who was convicted of spying for Britain in 2006.
'Sutyagin agreed to the swap offer as he had no other choice left. He knew that otherwise his whole life would be broken,' said Stavitskaya. 'But he still insists he is innocent.'
