Vadim Krasikov, an employee of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and former member of the FSB’s Alpha Group special forces unit, has been returned to Russia in a major prisoner swap with the West. This exchange, the largest since the Cold War, also included the return of a Russian sleeper agent family whose children were unaware of their Russian heritage until the swap occurred.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Krasikov’s affiliation with the FSB and his previous service in the elite Alpha Group, alongside members of President Vladimir Putin’s security team. Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen militant in a Berlin park, was the first to disembark the plane in Moscow. Putin personally greeted him with a hug.
The swap also saw the return of Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, deep-cover Russian agents convicted in Slovenia of posing as Argentine nationals to spy on the EU and NATO. Peskov elaborated on the clandestine lives of the Dultsev family, stating that the children only discovered their Russian identity during the flight back to Moscow. Upon arriving in Moscow, the children were greeted by Putin in Spanish, a language they spoke fluently.Â
The exchange involved 24 prisoners, with 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West returning to Russia. High-profile releases included U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza. Despite releasing more prisoners than it received, Russian authorities portrayed the swap as a victory. The swap was negotiated by the FSB and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, with ongoing efforts to secure the release of other Russians detained abroad.
Peskov dismissed suggestions that this exchange might signal a readiness for a broader compromise on Ukraine, indicating that such diplomatic efforts operate on different principles.
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