Vadim Krasikov, the Russian at the center of Thursday’s mass prisoner swap, has long topped the Kremlin’s list for an exchange. President Vladimir Putin hinted earlier this year that he was interested in such a trade to free a “patriot” held in Germany.
Now Krasikov, 58, is being released by Germany, where he has been imprisoned for murder.
What was Krasikov’s crime?
Krasikov was convicted for the Aug. 23, 2019, killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany.
Khangoshvili was gunned down from behind near Kleiner Tiergarten, a central Berlin park, with a silencer-fitted handgun. Witnesses saw the gunman
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