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In a historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West, the latter received journalists, activists, and individuals who opposed Vladimir Putin.
Knewz.com has learned that Moscow, in return, demanded the release of convicted assassins, smugglers, hackers, and spies.
One of the most notable characters to be let out of a Western jail and return to Russia was Vadim Krasikov. He was serving a life sentence in a German penal facility for the murder of Chechen rebel leader, Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili in 2019.
During the trial, a Berlin court found that he entered the country using a fake passport provided to him by the Kremlin.
Witness accounts of the incident indicate that the killer fired several shots from a silenced handgun into the back of his victim before ditching the weapon, a wig, and a bike in a river.
While the Kremlin has repeatedly denied any connection to the crime, it telegraphed Krasikov as a priority when the possibility of a prisoner swap was floated.
Additional reports suggest that the swap was a long time coming—and that Russia killed the incarcerated Alexei Navalny months prior so that he would not land in Western hands in the recent exchange.
Artema Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, an Argentinian duo who lived in Slovenia with their children since 2017, were also released.
They were outed as deep-cover Russian spies in 2022 and imprisoned, denying allegations until August 1 (a day before the prisoner swap).
Mikhail Mikushin, a Russian military intelligence agent arrested for posing as a guest lecturer at the Arctic University of Norway, was among those handed over to Russia.
He stuck to his cover for a full year before admitting he was not a Brazilian named Jose Assis Giammaria.
Pavel Rubtsov was arrested near the Polish border with Ukraine mere days after Putin’s invasion.
According to his captors, he used his credentials as a journalist, the cover name Pablo González, and the fact that he had moved to Spain from Russia as a child, as a ruse for his spying activities.
Rubtsov denied the accusations until he was released.
Roman Seleznev, son of longstanding Russian parliamentarian Valery Seleznev, is a hacker who was jailed for breaking into retail databases and stealing credit card information. His operations netted him $2 million.
While indicted in 2011, he was only arrested in 2014 when he took a holiday to the Maldives.
Vladislav Klyushin was a man of Seleznev’s profession—but he had bigger dreams. He would use his skills to procure information to help with insider trading, making millions in the process.
He was arrested in Switzerland in 2021, extradited to the United States, and convicted in 2023.
Vadim Konoshchenko, a suspected Russian intelligence officer, was arrested more than once in Estonia. There he was believed to be smuggling U.S. weapons and technology into Russia.
According to The Kyiv Post, he was finally detained for an infraction that stuck – once again, smuggling – and violating imposed sanctions.