Alexei Navalny
Allies of the Russian opposition leader say he was killed to thwart exchanges with an FSB colonel jailed in Germany
Monday, February 26, 2024, 4:42 p.m. GMT
Allies of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have claimed he was killed to prevent a planned prisoner swap with Vadim Krasikov, a convicted contract killer jailed in Germany.
Who is Vadim Krasikov?
Vadim Krasikov. Photo: Bellingcat
Krasikov, 58, a senior colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service, is serving a life sentence in a German prison for the 2019 murder of an opponent of the Russian regime in Berlin's Tiergarten.
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgia-born Chechen dissident registered as an asylum seeker in Germany, was shot dead by bullets from a Glock 26 in broad daylight by Krasikov, who was riding his bicycle through the park. Krasikov entered Germany with false documents.
The assassination attempt led to a diplomatic incident in which two Russian diplomats were transported from the German capital.
When sentencing Krasikov in 2021, a Berlin court called the killing a “state-ordered murder,” a claim Putin and the Kremlin rejected.
Putin alluded to him in his most recent interview with Tucker Carlson two weeks ago, in which the Russian leader said the release of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich could be secured through a prison swap with a man he described as a “patriot.” serving a life sentence in a “US-allied country” after being convicted of “liquidating a bandit.”
What did Germany say about him?
Reports first emerged in the summer of 2022 that the US was asking German authorities to consider whether Krasikov could take part in a prisoner exchange after receiving indications that Russia was willing to release two US citizens in return for Krasikov's release , but were repeatedly either denied or rejected by the German government.
Government officials said they had never seriously considered such a request, citing, among other things, the seriousness of the crime.
They said the U.S. government also had no right to demand the release from a German prison of a prisoner convicted of murder in Germany.
They have never officially commented on the existence or prospect of such a proposal.
They also did not respond on Sunday to accusations from Maria Pevchikh, a close Navalny ally, that despite frequently emphasizing the need to help him, negotiators from the United States and Germany were slow to conduct two years of talks with Navalny's team about his team Possible publication, plans would be completed in early 2023, she said.
Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said on Monday only that the government had seen the reports about the alleged exchange plans but could not comment on them.
U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby confirmed at the time that Russian officials had made such a request, but rejected the idea that exchanging two U.S. citizens held hostage by Russia in exchange for a hitman in a third country would ever happen would have been seriously considered.
What was the background?
In 2022, there was apparently discussion about exchanging Krasikov for professional basketball player Brittney Griner and former US soldier Paul Whelan, both of whom were imprisoned in Russia.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possibility of swapping Krasikov for Navalny in September.
Navalny was treated in a Berlin hospital in the summer of 2020 after being flown to the city for treatment following his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. He left Berlin for Russia in January 2021 and was arrested upon arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.
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