At Vnukovo airport in Moscow, the red carpet, bordered by a guard of honour, had been rolled out for the landing of the plane bearing the “Rossiya” (Russia) logo. On the evening of 1 August, President Vladimir Putin himself made the trip to greet, all smiles, the eight spies and criminals exchanged for twenty or so Americans and Russian opponents. The first to come down the stairs was Vadim Krassikov, wearing a cap and sports jacket, addressed with a “Zdorovo!” (“Great!” in Russian), by an ecstatic President Putin, who took him in his arms.
A hitman for the FSB – the successor to the KGB – Vadim Krassikov had been a prisoner in Germany since 2019 for assassinating the Chechen separatist of Georgian origin, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in Berlin in broad daylight. The Russian president had justified this act by the “patriotic feeling” that animated the assassin that day… Since then, Krassikov has quickly become the prisoner that the president absolutely wanted to recover. The condition sine qua non to arrange a prisoner exchange with the West.
It must be said that the ties between the two men are close. Krassikov is said to have been Putin’s bodyguard when the latter was First Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s, according to Wall Street Journaland could be the holder of state secrets, according to the swiss daily Image. By releasing Vadim Krasikov from behind bars, the Kremlin leader is sending a message to all Russian spies in the West, arrested or dormant, that Russia will be there to negotiate their release. “Your country will never forget you,” Vladimir Putin repeated as he exited the plane, addressing his compatriots.
Former criminals and spies now MPs
Krassikov’s case is reminiscent of another Russian prisoner abroad who returned to Russia after a prisoner exchange: Viktor Bout. Released in 2022 in exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner, he was also a priority for Vladimir Putin. An FSB agent, he had been an arms dealer in Africa and South America, and was arrested in 2008 by Thai authorities, then transferred to the United States.
After ten years in prison in America, the man who inspired the American film “Lords of War” was welcomed as a hero. He was even able to retrain in politics in his country, where, after being parachuted into the Ulyanovsk Oblast, he became last year a local deputy of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), a facade opposition to the government. In the same political party, we also find the national deputy Andrei Lugovoi, the alleged assassin of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvininko in London. In the Duma, he sits opposite Maria Butina (detained for fourteen months in the United States for espionage for Moscow who, released in 2019, was elected deputy of the presidential party “United Russia” in 2021.
Wagner’s Mercenaries Decorated
It is unclear whether Vadim Krasikov will enter politics. However, it is likely that he will receive a reward for his loyal service to the regime. Vladimir Putin promised on August 1 that repatriated prisoners would be entitled to an official distinction. This is nothing unusual in Russia, which has already rewarded many criminals, such as the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, former head of the Wagner mercenary group. While he fell from grace after his spectacular mutiny in June 2023, we discovered In his St. Petersburg apartment, he wore a large military uniform covered in medals, including one in the shape of a gold star. It distinguished him as a “Hero of the Russian Federation” – the country’s highest honorary title, while other medals made him a hero of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, two Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia.
Wagner’s close generals have not been forgotten either. In 2016, four of them posed solemnly next to Vladimir Putin at a ceremony in the Kremlin, rewarded for the capture of Palmyra in Syria. Pictured here are Dmitry Utkin, a neo-Nazi who founded Wagner with Yevgeny Prigozhin, accompanied by Alexander Kuznetsov, Andrei Bogatov and Andrei Trochev, Wagner commanders.
War criminals in Ukraine glorified
While most of Wagner’s executives were killed in the plane crash that also claimed the life of Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, the others have quietly returned to the ranks of the Ministry of Defense. But ordinary soldiers who served in Wagner’s units in Ukraine continue to be awarded medals of honor, often after their death. They are often former criminals released from prison and then enlisted in Wagner’s troops. The independent media outlet “Temps présent” cites, for example, one of these mercenaries, convicted of drug trafficking, who posthumously received a medal of courage and a solemn funeral in St. Petersburg. Another, convicted of murder, now has his name on a commemorative plaque on the facade of a school in the city of Saratov, in the west of the country.
Other convicts who were not killed at the front were able to be magnanimously pardoned by the Russian authorities. The Agentsvo channel has compiled the cases of at least 17 people guilty of the most sordid murders, taken from prison to go and fight in Ukraine between 2022 and 2023 (on behalf of Wagner and then the regular army). Vladislav Kanious, a resident of Kemerovo who had murdered his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend, is now free as a bird. As is that drunkard from Arkhangelsk, Vyacheslav Samoilov, who had killed his 33-year-old roommate, then cut her up with a hacksaw.
Perhaps the most cynical award was given on April 18, 2022, when, by decree of the Russian president, the 64th Brigade was awarded an honorary title for defending the “interests of the Motherland and the state.” This same brigade is accused by Ukraine of committing atrocious war crimes in Bucha. In Russia, any crime is worth committing, if it reflects blind loyalty to the Kremlin.
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