Kremlin says at least three Russian agents freed in prisoner swap deal
- The admission is a rare public admission into the work of Moscow’s top-secret security services
The Kremlin on Friday said that at least three Russians freed in a landmark prisoner exchange were undercover Russian agents, a rare public admission into the work of Moscow’s top-secret security services.
Moscow said Vadim Krasikov – who was serving life in prison in Germany for the 2019 brazen murder of a former Chechen separatist commander in broad daylight in a Berlin park – was an elite operative with Russia’s FSB security agency.
Krasikov was one of the central figures in Thursday’s historic multi-country exchange, with Putin having publicly lobbied for his release in a bid to get the deal over the line in the face of hesitation from Berlin.
The Kremlin almost never reveals details about its sprawling intelligence agencies, but it confirmed Friday that at least two others freed in the deal were also long-term undercover agents stationed in the European Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has portrayed them as returning heroes, personally thanking them for their service to the “Motherland” and promising to shower them with state awards.
“Krasikov is an FSB employee,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, adding that he served in the agency’s elite and secretive “Alpha” unit.