Russia received ten people as part of the largest exchange in the history

Killer Krasikov, spies and hackers - we tell what European and American authorities accused them

Today, the largest exchange of prisoners between Russia and Western countries took place. Its participants immediately became 26 people. The Russian side transferred 16 people - this group included US citizens, dual citizenship persons and Russians. Moscow received in response eight Russian citizens, as well as two children of Russian spies Artem and Anna Doltsev, said TASS sources.

In particular, among them was Killer Vadim Krasikov, convicted of the murder in the center of Berlin, the former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. In the list of those who were released - Russian hackers, as well as hiding spies. Novyevropa tells what European and American authorities accused them of.

Vadim Krasikov

Russian Vadim Krasikov on December 15, 2021 was convicted in Germany by life without the right to early release for the murder in August 2019 in the center of Berlin, the former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.

The motive of the custom -made murder, according to German prosecutors, was the "hostility [victim] to the Russian state." According to them, Krasikov acted on the instructions of the "state departments of the Government of the Russian Federation."

The prosecutor's office also stated that she considers Krasikov to the Special Forces of the FSB Vympel. According to investigators, 56-year-old Krasikov came to Berlin from Warsaw. At noon on August 23, 2019, he approached the victim on a bicycle in Tirgarten Park and took three shots, two of them in the back of the head. Eyewitnesses described what they saw as “execution”.

The investigators of Spiegel , Insider and Bellingcat found out that Krasikov could be trained at the FSB special purpose center in Balashikha, and the last training took place a few days before the murder of Khangoshvili. After the detention in Berlin, the police found a Russian passport in Krasikov in the name of Vadim Sokolov.

The murdered 40-year-old Khangoshvili lived in Germany since 2016 as a refugee under the name of Tornik Havtarashvili. The Russian authorities recognized him as a “terrorist”: from 2000 to 2004, he, an ethnic brush, was a field commander of Chechen formations, and in 2008 took part in the conflict in South Ossetia on the side of the Georgian forces. The investigation believes that surveillance was installed behind Khangoshvili.

Russia denied the involvement of its special services in the murder.

Killer Krasikov could be exchanged for the politician Alexei Navalny, who was killed in February this year in the Russian colony, said his ally, Maria Pevchiki. According to her, in the evening of February 15, she received confirmation that negotiations were underway and are at the final stage, but the next day Navalny was killed.

Artyom and Anna Dultsev

The Slovenia court on July 31 accused the Russian spies Anna and Artyom Doltsevs of espionage, they were sentenced to year and seven months of imprisonment, but then the court ordered them to expel them from the country and forbade entry for five years. Both defendants of the case pleaded guilty.

According to the investigation, the couple passed out of the citizens of Argentina Ludwig Gisha and Maria Rosa Mayer Musos. They really had Argentine passports and came to Slovenia from Argentina in 2017. The man led an IT company, and his wife founded an online art gallery in the country. They settled in Ljubljana to freely travel to neighboring countries, as well as, according to the court, thus transfer orders from Moscow and bring cash to other Russian hidden agents.

Local media reported that the detainees were operatives of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, which recruited spies, who subsequently submitted themselves as citizens of Western countries. Doltsevs were in custody from December 5, 2022. The police arrested them in the Lyububsheansky district of Kronuch.

Vladislav Klyushin

The court in Boston (USA) in September 2023 sentenced to nine years the prison of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin. Back in February of the same year, the jury found him and four other Russians guilty of cybercrime and fraud with securities.

According to investigators, Klyushin and four of his accomplices were hacked by the Donnelley Financial Solutions (Dfin.n) and Toppan Merrill chains, which help American companies submit reports to the regulatory authorities. The prosecutor’s office in Boston, Massachusetts, claims that they traded stolen official information about the activities of Tesla, Roku and other companies, having received illegal profit of tens of millions of dollars.

Klyushin was detained in Switzerland in March 2021 and then extradited in the United States.

In Russia, Klyushin was the founder of the Moscow company M-13, who developed the Katyusha media monitoring system for the President of Russia. According to Bloomberg, Klyushin had access to the documents of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, and in June 2020, Vladimir Putin awarded it the Order of Honor.

Journalists also called the entrepreneur the alleged owner of the Nezigar telegram channel. However, the businessman himself denied this and even demanded, through the court to delete the article of the Project publication with the mention of him as the “holder” of the channel.

Mikhail Mikushin

Mikhail Mikushin is accused by the Norwegian court of espionage. During the investigation, he, a researcher from Tromso University, first presented himself as Jose Assis Jammaria from Brazil, but later admitted that he was a Russian citizen.

A scientist was detained in October 2022. Norwegian services suspected that Mikushin actually had Russian citizenship and that he was undercover. According to the Norway’s special services, the man was engaged in illegal exploration and collection of information for the authorities of the Russian Federation.

Pavel Rubtsov

The Spanish journalist of Russian descent Pablo Gonzalez (Pavel Rubtsov) was arrested in 2022 on charges of espionage in favor of Russia.

He was detained in Poland by the border with Ukraine shortly after the outbreak of war, on the night of February 28, 2022. Shortly before that, the Security Service of Ukraine demanded that Gonzalez leave the country. The Polish authorities did not comment on the arrest in detail.

The Agency found that Gonzalez was probably an agent of the Russian GRU, introduced, surrounded by the daughter of the politician Boris Nemtsov - Jeanne. According to the publication, Gonzales made air travel with the scout Sergey Turbin.

Pablo Gonzalez was born in Moscow in 1982. He had double citizenship, and at nine years he left with his mother in Spain.

Roman Seleznev

Roman Seleznev - the son of a State Duma deputy from the LDPR Valery Selezneva - in 2017 in the USA was sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges of cyber abbess. According to the prosecution, Seleznev earned at least $ 170 million to the theft of more than 2 million credit card numbers, selling them in the black market.

Selezneva was detained in early July 2014 in the Maldives. Later he was taken to the American island of Guam, and then to Seattle.

He was accused of hacking the system of retail points throughout the United States in 2009-2011. According to the prosecution, from his houses and apartments in Vladivostok, in Indonesia and Bali, he managed the sites of international card forums to facilitate the theft and sale of these stolen credit cards. More than 18 million dollars received as a result of illegal operations were found in Seleznev’s bank accounts.

Vadim Konoshchok

Russian Vadim Konoshchynok is accused of the US procurement of military technologies for Russia to detour sanctions. In the American Ministry of Justice, he was called the "FSB officer." He is one of the five citizens of Russia accused by the American authorities of involvement in the procurement of advanced Western electronics and equipment for the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation.

According to the US prosecutor’s office, he illegally acquired and exported the electronic components that can be used in the development of nuclear and hypersonic weapons, quantum calculations and other military applications.

Estonia authorities detained the hemp in October 2022, while trying to import about 35 different types of semiconductors and electronic components to Russia from Estonia. Then he was extracted in the United States.