Germany says 'not easy decision' to release Russian murderer
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov (left) was released from prison in Germany, while German Rico Krieger (right) was released from Russia-allied Belarus, where he had been sentenced to death.
PHOTOS: REUTERS
Follow topic:
BERLIN - Germany's government said on Aug 1 it was not an easy decision to release from jail Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of the murder in 2019 of a former Chechen militant in Berlin, in a prisoner swop
Krasikov was among the Russians released by the West in exchange for 15 people imprisoned "unjustly" in Russia and a German who had been sentenced to death in Belarus, the German government said in a statement.
Those released from Russia included US Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had in February hinted he would release Gershkovich in exchange for Krasikov, referring in an interview to a person who "due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals".
Such a swop, however, was complicated for Germany given the brazenness of the murder,
"Our obligation to protect German nationals and our solidarity with the USA were important motivations," the government said.
US President Joe Biden acknowledged on Aug 1 that Germany had had to make significant concessions to achieve the prisoner swop.
Turkey, which coordinated the exchange, said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the US.
The German government did not confirm how many of its nationals had been released in the swop.
In a sign of the impending swop, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, had on July 30 pardoned Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus
