Russian murderer freed in prisoner swap is FSB agent, Kremlin confirms.
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Become a member Support us just onceConvicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, who was freed from German prison in a historic prisoner exchange on Aug.
1, is a Federal Security Service (FSB) agent, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Aug.
2. A German court sentenced Krasikov to life imprisonment in 2021 for the murder of Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili in 2019. A Georgian citizen of Chechen descent, Khangoshvili fought against Russian forces in Chechnya in the early 2000s and claimed asylum in Germany in 2016.
The German court said that Krasikov had acted under orders from the Kremlin and had been issued a fake passport to travel to Berlin to kill Khangoshvili. The Kremlin denied the claims at the time. Peskov confirmed on Aug.
2 that Krasikov was an FSB agent who served in the Alpha Group, a shady arm of Russia's security service that is thought to perform covert operations within Russia and internationally. Krasikov was greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin upon arrival in Russia. "When he served in Alpha, he served together with several members of the presidential security service.
Naturally, they greeted each other yesterday when they saw each other," Peskov added.
Killers, spies and smugglers - the Russians released in historic prisoner swap
Kremlin's assassin, Vadim Krasikov, has been imprisoned in Germany since 2021 after being given a life sentence for murdering Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.