With a silenced pistol, a man on a bicycle shoots dead a Chechen commander in his 40s – in broad daylight in a park in Berlin in August 2019.
Two years later, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, which German prosecutors described as “state-ordered murder.”
SVT Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten, together with a number of other European media, have taken part in leaked documents which reveal that the fund Pravfond, which has close ties to Russian intelligence, financed the defense of the Russian torpedo.
Through the fund, at least 60,000 euros must have been paid to Krasikov’s lawyer, according to the documents.
The arms dealer
Viktor Bout, called “The Merchant of Death”, was sentenced in 2012 in the United States to 25 years in prison for arms smuggling. Now the document leak reveals that Pravfond has supported Bout with legal support at a cost of 260,000 dollars, equivalent to roughly 2.75 million kroner.
In December 2022, Viktor Bout was released in a prisoner exchange for American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for bringing a small amount of cannabis into the country.
The cocaine smuggler
The pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison in the United States for having smuggled cocaine worth over one billion kroner into the country. In connection with the legal process, Pravfond paid approximately half a million kroner for legal support, according to the documents.
In April 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Yaroshenko would be exchanged for US Marine Trevor Reed, who was imprisoned in Russia after an altercation with a police officer.