Putin is ready to exchange Hershkovich for the alleged FSB officer Krasikov
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with the former host of the American TV channel Fox News, Tucker Carlson, hinted at the readiness to exchange Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Hershkovich, who is in a Russian prison on charges of espionage.
Putin said that Hershkovich worked “in the interests of the American special services” and was caught “red handed” when he “received secret information on a conspiratorial basis.” According to the Russian president, this is called espionage, but he agrees that there is no point in keeping Hershkovich in a Russian prison and the issue should be resolved “through the channels of the special services.” The Russian president made it clear that the exchange of Hershkovich is possible if there is a counter-movement from the USA. “Well, we just have to agree,” Putin added, and immediately told “the story of a man who “out of patriotic reasons eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals” and is now “serving a term in a country that is an ally of the United States.”
The Russian president is referring to Vadym Krasikov (aka Vadym Sokolov), presumably an employee of the Russian special services, sentenced to life in Germany for the murder of the former field commander of the Chechen separatists, Zelimkhan Khangoshvyla.
A court in Germany established that the Russian acted at the behest of Moscow, and called the murder of Khangoshvila in Berlin in 2019 an act of state terrorism. According to journalistic investigations, Krasykov may be a veteran of the Vympel special unit and a senior FSB officer. Moscow denies involvement in Khangoshvila’s murder.
Moscow needed to add Vadym Krasikov, a Russian sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany, to the prisoner exchange deal between the USA and Russia. This was reported by the CNN channel in the summer of 2022 with reference to numerous anonymous sources familiar with the discussion of the deal.
In September of last year, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Vladimir Putin personally gave the mandate to seek the release of Krasykov. Secretary of the Security Council Nikolay Patrushev deals with this issue. According to the publication, Krasykov’s name was mentioned during negotiations on the exchange of US citizens Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia on charges of espionage, and Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Hershkovich, who has been in a Moscow pretrial detention center since spring 2023 on the same charge.
