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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
The jailed KGB assassin responsible for keeping Paul Whelan behind bars in Russia: Kremlin said it would only release Brittney Griner AND the Marine vet if US helped free hitman who slaughtered Chechen separatist
2022-12-10
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Russia demanded return of former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel and hitman Vadim Krasikov

  • He was convicted of murdering a former Chechen separatist in Berlin in December 2019

  • Germany balked at releasing him, the New York Times reported

  • Attorney for Russian Alexander Vinnik wants his client included

  • Indictment says he set up illicit bitcoin exchange that laundered $4B

  • American Marc Fogel is serving 14 years over marijuana after airport bust

  • White House was again pressed on whether Griner-Viktor Bout deal was fair
Related:
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili: 2022-06-17 Polish prosecutor appeals the acquittal of natives of Chechnya
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili: 2020-06-19 German prosecutors indict man for Moscow-ordered hit in Berlin
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili: 2020-03-07 Report: FBI Dropped Ball On Domestic Terrorists Who Killed 70 People, Rand Paul Hits Comey
Posted by:Skidmark

#3  Good find, SteveS — and thank you for reading the New York Times so that we don’t have to. The gentleman in question shows up several times in the Rantburg archives, so I’ve added a search on his name to the bottom of the article.

Definitely payback for more than Beslan. To quote an in-line:

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the so-called Chechen Republic of Ichkeria evolved into the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate, the umbrella group for the jihadi organizations in the North Caucasus. Russia has been hunting down the jihadis of Caucasian Emirate for three decades.
Posted by: trailing wife   2022-12-10 11:16  

#2  According to the New York Times:
"The victim was a 40-year-old refugee named Zelimkhan Khangoshvili,... a Chechen former separatist commander who fought against Russian forces in the early 2000s and was labeled a terrorist by Russian state media."

Early 2000s, eh? Somebody was holding a grudge. Payback for Beslan, maybe.
Posted by: SteveS   2022-12-10 09:58  

#1  NBC News issues correction after reporting Biden had a 'choice' between Griner or Whelan in prisoner swap
Posted by: Skidmark   2022-12-10 09:02  

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