Germany says 'not easy decision' to release Russian murderer
RUSSIA-USA/PRISONERS-GERMANY (UPDATE 1):UPDATE 1-Germany says 'not easy decision' to release Russian murderer
BERLIN, - Germany's government said on Thursday it was not an easy decision to release from jail Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of the murder in 2019 of a former Chechen militant in Berlin, in a prisoner swap between Moscow and the West.
Krasikov was among the Russians released by the West in exchange for 15 people imprisoned "unjustly" in Russia and a German who had been sentenced to death in Belarus, the German government said in a statement.
Those released from Russia included U.S. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had in February hinted he would release Gershkovich in exchange for Krasikov, referring in an interview to a person who "due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals".
Such a swap however was complicated for Germany given the brazenness of the murder, committed in broad light a few minutes' walk from parliament and the office of then-chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Our obligation to protect German nationals and our solidarity with the USA were important motivations," the government said.
U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged on Thursday that Germany had had to make significant concessions to achieve the prisoner swap.
Turkey, which coordinated the exchange, said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States.
The German government did not confirm how many of its nationals had been released in the swap.
In a sign of the impending swap, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, had on Tuesday pardoned Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
