In a vast and complex prisoner swap between Russia and the West on Thursday, the largest since the Cold War, the United States and some of its allies agreed to exchange eight Russian detainees in exchange for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans. as well as several Russian dissidents held in Russian prisons.
Among the high-profile detainees transferred to Russia as part of the change are a killer, two sleeper agents and a hacker linked to the attacks on Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. These are among those who returned to Russia under the agreement.
Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent convicted of the 2019 murder of Chechen insurgent Zelimkhan Kangoshvili in Germany, was serving a life sentence in a German prison. His release was considered the point of a major exchange.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted in the past that Russia would be willing to release Gershkovich if Krasikov were included in a prisoner swap. He now fulfilled his wish.
Krasikov is also believed to be at least two other murders, adding that of a restaurateur in Moscow in 2015 and a businessman in the northern European region of Karelia in 2015.
Arrested in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2022, the Russian couple posed as Argentine citizens and allegedly used Slovenia as a base to travel to the EU on behalf of Moscow, handing over cash to other Russian sleeper agents.
Anna worked under the guise of an art broker and gallery owner, while her husband posed as an IT entrepreneur.
Both pleaded guilty to espionage and were sentenced to 19 months in prison on Wednesday, a day before the exchange.
Journalist Pablo González Yagüe (born Pavel Rubtsov) arrested by the Polish government in Przemyśl in February 2022. He was accused of spying for the Russian intelligence services and allegedly used his role as a journalist to collect data for the GRU.
He has worked as a freelance journalist for media outlets, focusing on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet states. She denied the espionage charges.
Seleznev is the son of a Russian lawmaker described as “one of the most prolific credit card thieves in history. “
Arrested in the Maldives in 2014 and handed over to US authorities, he was found guilty of fraud, computer hacking, possession of illegally obtained credit cards and theft of private data. Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
An investigation found that he was involved in a hacking scheme that allegedly caused at least $170 million in damage, involving the theft and sale of customers’ credit card points at cash registers at retail establishments and restaurants across the United States.
Klyushin, a Russian businessman, arrested in Switzerland at the request of the US government in 2021.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023, accused of hacking several companies, recovering data to use privileged information.
One of Klyushin’s workers among 12 alleged GRU operatives charged in the United States in 2018 with hacking Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential crusade and the Democratic National Committee.
Mikushin was arrested in Norway in 2022, accused of spying for the Russian GRU while posing as a Brazilian researcher at Norway’s Arctic University.
Konoshchenok was described through the US government as a Russian national with alleged ties to the FSB.
Konoshchenok is allegedly involved in smuggling goods from the United States to Russia, as well as illegally buying weapons for the war in Ukraine. He denied the charges against him, according to Russian state media.
Vinnik has been accused through the United States government of laundering more than $4 billion.
Prosecutors alleged that bitcoins stolen from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox were traded on the platform founded through Vinnik – BTC-e, which was once the largest Russian-language cryptocurrency exchange.
He also accused, through the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, of embezzlement of 600,000 rubles from an unspecified organization. Vinnik’s lawyer said in a court filing last year that “the issue of political negotiations on a prisoner exchange with Russia at the highest levels of government. “
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Joe Edwards is a live news reporter in Newsweek’s London bureau. He covers American and global news with a specific interest in politics and social policy in the United States and the United Kingdom. Joe joined Newsweek in April 2024 after completing a master’s degree in International Journalism. at the City of London University. Previously, he studied history and English literature at the University of Kent. Languages: English.
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