Vadim Krasikov’s name has come up in recent weeks in relation to prisoner swaps involving now deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany. Krasikov was sentenced in 2021. German judges said he acted on the orders of Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity, passport and resources to carry out the killing.
