The assassination took place in broad daylight in a park in central Berlin, as Russian gunmen rode up on bicycles and shot a former Chechen separatist in the head as children and their parents looked on.
Vadim Krasikov was convicted of a 2019 rampageeventSentenced to life imprisonment in Germanyand later Russian President Vladimir Putin called him a patriot.
He was freed Thursday in the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War. The 16 people released by Russia included three Americans: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich; another journalist, Arsu Kurmasheva; and former U.S. Marine and corporate security executive Paul Whelan. The deal also included several Russian dissidents freed by the Kremlin, while Western countries freed eight Russian prisoners.
Krasikov, who is nearly 60 years old, appears to be the key figure in this multi-party agreement, as Putin himself has said that it is Krasikov who he wants.
In a February television interview, Putin noted that U.S. and Russian intelligence agencies were in contact over Gershkovich and that a deal was possible “if our partners take reciprocal steps.”

Putin did not mention Krasikov by name, but it was clear who he was referring to when he said “a man, motivated by patriotism, eliminated a gangster in a European capital” and that it was related to events in the Caucasus.
The man who was shot was named Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, 40, a Chechen from Georgia who commanded a militia during the Chechen separatist war. Khangoshvili moved to Germany with his family after several assassination attempts in Georgia.
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The German judge in the case said the order for the assassination carried out by Krasikov may have come from Putin himself, a claim denied by Russia, which in 2006 passed a law allowing extrajudicial killings abroad of people the country deems extremists or terrorists.
The court found that after stalking and shooting his victims in Tiergarten Park, Krasikov threw his bicycle, a Glock pistol and a bag containing his camouflage into the Spree River. Witnesses called police, who arrested him nearby, and investigators found his fingerprints on some items recovered by police divers.
Krasikov has denied killing anyone, and he has never changed his story, saying he was a tourist named Vadim A. Sokolov, the name on his Russian passport. Putin takes such loyalty very seriously, as he himself was a former KGB agent who was once stationed in Dresden, Germany. So Thursday’s prisoner swap also had the meaning of rescuing colleagues.
Krasikov’s true identity was eventually determined by matching his distinctive tattoos. In detailing the case, German prosecutors noted that Krasikov worked for Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, a predecessor to the KGB, a secret service responsible for assassinations and other covert operations outside Russia.
After Krasikov’s conviction, Germany, annoyed by Russia’s lack of cooperation in the case and its repeated refusal to take official part, expelled two Russian diplomats.
Zurab Khangoshvili, the assassin’s brother, said in an interview that he had been following Russia’s attempts to free Krasikov. Khangoshvili currently lives in Germany, but he said his family’s asylum application in Germany was rejected. He said the case was “a piece of cake” for Russian security services.

“They send people everywhere to kill people and then capture innocent people to trade, and it seems to work for them,” he said. He said jailing Krasikov would have broken that pattern, but added that he would not oppose a swap: “If he was swapped and innocent people were released, I would be happy.”
Following the sudden death in February of Alexei Navalny, a leading opposition figure who could have been swapped for Krasikov, in a Russian penal colony, his aides said negotiations were underway to swap Mr. Krasikov for Mr. Navalny and several American prisoners in Russia.
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On Thursday, President Biden said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cooperation in agreeing to Krasikov’s release was a key factor in the diplomatic talks.
Russia has repeatedly said no deal could be reached on Gershkovich’s release before he, 32, was sentenced. Espionage trials in Russia usually take months, but his trial was concluded in a lightning-fast month.KurmashevaThe trial ended in an equally swift manner.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian lawyer who specialized in espionage and other sensitive cases before fleeing Russia, said the swift resolution of Gershkevich’s case — which involved just two hearings and no apparent defense — suggested some kind of remedy was in the works.
“They all want a fast process, which means they all know something, even if they can’t say it publicly,” Pavlov said. The espionage case is heard in secret, meaning no details are released and lawyers are barred from commenting.
On July 19, Gershkovic was sentenced to 16 years in prison on what were widely seen as trumped-up espionage charges. On the same day, Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for spreading “false information” and failing to register as a foreign agent.
Thursday’s swap also resulted in the release of Whelan, who was convicted of espionage.16 years in prisonwhich the United States also said was politically motivated. He was arrested in a Moscow hotel in December 2018.
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Prisoner swaps between Russia and the West date back more than 60 years to the height of the Cold War, though large exchanges involving large numbers of detainees are rare. A 1985 swap involved 29 people, including 23 Westerners. The most recent mass release was in July 2010, when the United States freed 10 recently captured Russians and Moscow released four.
That timeexchangeThe exchange took place on the tarmac at Vienna International Airport and included Manhattan socialite Anna Chapman, who was determined to be a sleeper agent. Russia released Russian nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin and former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal. Russian agents subsequentlyTried to poison himbut was unsuccessful and a British woman was killed in the operation.

Experts viewed the overall agreement for the hostages released Thursday as a notable example of a Kremlin technique known as “hostage diplomacy.”
“This is essentially hostage-taking under the guise and color of law,” said Danielle Gilbert, a Northwestern University political science professor who has studied the approach. “It seems to be increasing in recent years, especially as a newly favored tactic in Russia under Vladimir Putin.”
She warned that the practice was likely to only increase as it was governments, not terrorist groups, that turned to hostage-taking.
“It’s an asymmetric approach used by adversaries around the world who want to get things from the United States but want to avoid a full-blown, open conflict,” she said.