Moscow wants Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national convicted of murder in Germany last year, to be included in a potential prisoner exchange with the US, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
The channel reported earlier that the US was willing to swap Viktor Bout, who was convicted of arms trafficking in the US a decade ago, for former US Marine Paul Whelan and basketball player Brittney Griner, currently held in Russia on an espionage conviction and drug charges respectively.
Krasikov was convicted by a German court in December for assassinating Zelimkhan Khangoshvili – a former Chechen commander who fought against Moscow – in a Berlin park in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. The court ruled that Krasikov was acting at the behest of the Russian government, but the Kremlin denied that the state was involved.
According to CNN, Moscow made the request to swap Krasikov last month through “an informal backchannel” used by the country’s chief domestic security agency, the FSB. The sources told the channel that the request was seen as “problematic” because Krasikov is in German custody, and is not viewed as “a legitimate counter” to Washington’s reported offer to exchange Bout for Griner and Whelan.