Russia proposes exchange: journalist Gershkovich and others for FSB killer Krasikov

This is reported by the official website of the outlet.

"Moscow has since brought up Krasikov’s case in prisoner-swap negotiations, according to Western officials. The officials said Krasikov is central to US efforts to win the release of people held by Russia, possibly including US Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich," the Wall Street Journal reports. 

Vadim Krasikov, an FSB colonel, is currently serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of Chechen commander Zemlikhan Khangoshvili. 

Who is Krasikov?

On August 23, 2019, in the center of Berlin, Russian FSB Colonel Vadim Krasikov shot and killed a former Chechen field commander, a citizen of Georgia, Zemlikhan Khangoshvili, who was wanted for terrorism in Russia. In 2015, he was a victim of an attempted assassination in Georgia and fled to Germany.

Khangoshvili’s killer was detained the same day, but he had a passport in the name of Vadim Sokolov. In March 2021, Ukrainian intelligence services confirmed that "Vadim Sokolov" was a Russian man, Vadim Krasikov, an employee of the Russian Federal Security Service.

In December 2021, a court in Berlin sentenced Vadim Krasikov to life in prison, and the country's Foreign Ministry said that the murder was a "state order."

The detention of American journalist Gershkovich

At the end of March 2023, the Russian FSB detained the Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg (Ural, Russia), who was to write about Russians' attitudes to the war in Ukraine and the recruitment of locals to Wagner PMC. He was arrested in an espionage case.

The next day, US President Joe Biden commented on Gershkovich’s detention and espionage charges and called on the Russian authorities to release the journalist.

It is also reported that the Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, detained in Yekaterinburg, was previously monitored by Russian special services.

Subsequently, Russian FSB investigators formally charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage. The journalist denied the charges.