Kremlin admits prisoner released in historic swap is Russian state assassin

The Kremlin has admitted that Vadim Krasikov, the assassin freed by Germany in a historic prisoner swap on Thursday, is a serving officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), essentially an acknowledgment that his 2019 murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin was a state-ordered hit.

- Shaun Walker, Deborah Cole

It also hinted that he was linked to Vladimir Putin's personal guard.

"Krasikov is an FSB employee," the Russian president's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters, adding that he had "served with some of the people working in the president's security detail".

Krasikov was one of eight Russians released from jails in the west and returned to Moscow on Thursday as part of a complex exchange deal in which 16 people were freed from Russian custody, including the US reporter Evan Gershkovich and several Russian opposition politicians.

Those involved in the negotiations have said that for Putin, Krasikov had always been the most important part of the puzzle, with the Kremlin insisting he would have to be included in any exchange. Putin was described as "maniacal" about it by one source in Moscow with knowledge of the negotiations - and yesterday's admission goes some way to explaining why.

It is the first time the Kremlin has admitted one of its serving operatives is behind a murder on foreign soil. Previously, Moscow has always denied involvement in cases such as the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London, the 2018 attempted murder of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, or numerous hits on Chechen exiles in Istanbul.