Vladimir Putin embraced Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov after he was released from a German jail
(Pictures: East2West/Reuters)
Vladimir Putin was seen embracing a convicted killer who could know some of the leader’s most dangerous secrets.
Russian state assassin Vadim Krasikov was released from a German prison as part of a prisoner exchange with the West.
The 58-year-old was crucial to the deal to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, falsely accused of spying by Moscow.
When the newly released Russians landed on home soil, Krasikov was the first off the plane and was met by Putin on a specially-lain red carpet.
The leader shook the killer’s hand, hugged him and said ‘zdorovo’, an informal greeting that implies a previous closeness.
He then publicly tod Krasikov he would receive a top state award.
None of the other prisoners were greeted quite so warmly.
Krasikov is thought to be closely connected to Putin’s past (Picture: via Reuters)
The Russian intelligence agent had had been serving a life prison sentence in Germany after killing a former Chechen independence fighter in Berlin in 2019.
Krasikov shot Zelimkhan Khangoshvili dead in broad daylight in Kleiner Tiergarten park.
He was said to be acting on the orders of the Russian government.
Now, according to German newspaper Bild, it appears that Putin and Krasikov were closely connected in past, as far back as the 1990s, when the Kremlin ruler was taking his first steps in politics.
Military analyst and senior editor Julian Röpcke said: ‘A Western intelligence service believes that the Russian dictator feared that Krasikov might reveal important information if he stayed in a German prison for much longer.
Putin with Krasikov after the convicted killer stepped off the plane this week (Picture: Kremlin.ru/e2w)
‘Out of revenge against the Russian regime for not freeing him. Or to strike a deal with the authorities.’
It is thought Krasikov ‘played a crucial role in Putin’s rise in the 1990s’ and even possibly in the suspicious death of the president’s main political mentor, Anatoly Sobchak, ex-mayor of St Petersburg, in 2000.
‘It was a quid pro quo: Sobchak is said to have protected Putin from corruption charges. Putin helped his mentor when he was accused of bribery,’ said the news report.
Krasikov is seen as having worked for Sobchak and his then deputy Putin ‘and acted against their political opponents’.
Yet in February 2000, a few weeks after Putin took office as acting president, Sobchak suddenly died.
Putin with freed prisoners, Artyom and Anna Dultseva, along with one of their children (Picture: via Reuters)
Officially his cause of death was a heart attack, but there were suspicions he had been murdered.
‘Did Krasikov have anything to do with the alleged murder of Putin’s political mentor? And does the trail even lead to Putin himself?’ Röpcke asked.
‘This suspicion is held by a Western intelligence service, which believes that Putin fought so persistently for Krasikov’s release because of it.’
Röpcke said: ‘The Russian dictator places great importance on what is known about his past.
‘If the intelligence’s suspicion is correct that he was involved in the murder of his political mentor, it would call into question Putin’s favourite characteristic – the loyalty he supposedly values so highly.
‘And it would cast an irreparable shadow over the narrative of his rise that Putin wants to be known about his ascent.’
Twenty six people were freed as part of the prisoner exchange (Picture: Reuters)
A separate article states that German investigators are unhappy with the release of Krasikov.
A total of 26 people were were freed as part of the prisoner exchange between the West and Russia.
But it is thought Putin built the swap around getting Krasikov back from Germany.
Russian Telegram channel PolitYumor said: ‘Putin rushed to the airport to hug the assassin.
‘A hired killer, and even deceitful Russian propaganda does not deny that Krasikov is a hired killer.
‘Putin doesn’t care about those who have experienced grief. Putin only cares about those who kill on his orders.
’He kills in Germany, in Ukraine, in Russia itself.’
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