It looks like there may be a name in connection to a potential prisoner swap for Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. Gershkovich, 31, is a reporter based in Moscow for the Wall Street Journal. Paul Whelan, 53, is a former Marine and security consultant. Whelan was convicted of spying charges in 2020. Gershkovich is being detained in a Russian prison pending his trial for charges of espionage.

The U.S. government has designated both men as illegally detained. It is alleged that talks are stalled now for a prisoner swap for the two men. Prisoner swaps are how the Biden administration has negotiated the return home of detainees in Russia. The last prisoner swap was for WNBA player Brittney Griner. Instead of Paul Whelan, Griner was released in exchange for a notorious Russian arms dealer. Now it looks like Mad Vlad Putin wants his favorite hitman back.

Vadim Krasikov, the hitman jailed in Germany for the assassination of a Chechen dissident, is reported to be the person. Allegedly, his name has been raised by the Kremlin in negotiations with Western officials.

Krasikov, 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2021 for the “state-ordered killing” of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian national of Chechen heritage.

Mr Khangoshvili was shot dead in a children’s playground in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park in 2019.

He had been targeted by the Russians since fleeing to Germany from Georgia in 2016. He allegedly led a 2004 raid by Chechens in which several security officials were killed,

Russia included his name on a list of the country’s 19 most wanted terrorists which it sent to other countries, including Germany in 2012.

His application for asylum was rejected by Germany, but he was nevertheless able to remain in the country.

Krasikov may not be the sharpest tool in the shed. He was travelling on a false passport using the name Vadim Sokolov. He was trying to escape on an electric scooter. He dumped a bike and gun in the River Spree, as well as his disguise. Thanks to fingerprints and DNA, he was convicted. The DNA came from Krasikov’s discarded items.

Krasikov insisted he was an innocent Russian tourist. German prosecutors were helped by authorities in Kyiv and the investigative website, Bellingcat, to establish that he was a veteran agent working for Vympel, the secretive department of the Russian security service, FSB. FSB is who is responsible for the arrest of Evan while on a reporting trip in a city outside of Moscow. Hours after Krasikov’s conviction, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats.

Putin has been seeking the release of Krasikov since he was convicted. Krasikov is seen as a top priority of Putin’s.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Evan’s fate likely won’t be discussed until after his trial. One hang-up may be that Germany is reluctant to release a man convicted of murder on German soil.

The way the prisoner swaps have worked is that they involve swapping Western detainees held in Russia for Russians held in the West.

Evan’s trial date has not been set. The Russians seem to be dragging their feet, allowing him to sit in jail for as long as possible. We’ll see what comes of this latest information.