A historic prisoner swap took place on Aug. 1, with Russia and several Western countries exchanging a total of 24 detainees, the largest such move in almost 15 years.
Those freed by Russia include activists, journalists, and opposition leaders, most notably the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and Russian-born Pulitzer Prize winner Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Those who Russia demanded in return are different, with the list largely consisting of spies, assassins, and cyber-criminals.
Nate Ostiller
Vadim Krasikov
Vadim Krasikov has been imprisoned in Germany since 2021, after being given a life sentence for the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili.
Khangoshvili was a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who fought against Russian forces in Chechnya, before he claimed asylum in Germany.
The German court that sentenced Krasikov said he had acted under order from the Kremlin and had been issued a fake passport in order to travel to Berlin.
There he shot Khangoshvili multiple times from behind with a silenced handgun, and witnesses subsequently saw him throwing a bike, a gun, and a wig into the Spree River.
The Kremlin denied the claims.
In February, it was claimed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed in prison to prevent his exchange for Krasikov.
The theory – which was not supported by concrete evidence – was put forward by Anti-Corruption Foundation Chair Maria Pevchikh, who said the proposal was conveyed to Putin by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Putin was told that swapping Navalny was the only way of ensuring Krasikov's return, and realizing that the West was open to exchanging the hitman, the Kremlin's leader had Navalny killed to instead consider swapping Krasikov for somebody else, according to Pevchikh.
Putin said in a Feb. 8 interview with U.S. political commentator Tucker Carlson that the U.S. could ask their allies to exchange Gershkovich for a "patriot" serving a life sentence for "liquidating a bandit."
Although he did not mention Krasikov by name during the interview, it is widely understood that this is who he was referring to.
On Aug. 1, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed that Alexei Navalny was to be part of prisoner exchange before dying in prison on Feb. 16 under suspicious circumstances.
The Kremlin previously made an attempt on Navalny’s life, poisoning the opposition leader with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020, a fact that suggests the Kremlin was invested in killing the politician.
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva
Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer were an Argentinian couple happily living in Slovenia with their two children since 2017.
He ran a startup IT company, and she ran an online art gallery.
Only it was all a front – the couple were actually deep-cover Russian spies Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva.
They were arrested in 2022 and on July 31, 2024, just one day before the prisoner swap, they pleaded guilty to spying and falsifying documents.
They were both sentenced to 19 months in jail and then released on time served, ordered to leave the country, all just in time to be part of the prisoner swap.
Since their arrests, the couple's children have continued to attend an international school in Ljubljana and what will happen to them is not currently known. According to several media outlets, the children accompanied their parents to Russia.
Mikhail Mikushin
Mikhail Mikushin was detained in the Norwegian city of Tromso in October 2022.
At the time of his arrest, he went by the name Jose Assis Giammaria, a Brazilian citizen working as a guest lecturer at the Arctic University of Norway.
An investigation by The insider and Bellingcat released shortly after his arrest concluded Mikushin was a "poorly disguised GRU (Russia's military intelligence agency) officer."More than a year later in December 2023, Norwegian authorities announced he had finally confessed to his real Russian name.
Pavel Rubtsov
Pavel Rubtsov was born in Moscow and moved to Spain as a child.
He was arrested in Poland near the border with Ukraine just days after the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, when he identified himself as Pablo González, a Spanish journalist.
Polish authorities accused him of spying and using his journalistic credentials as cover. The Voice of America (VoA) reported at the time that he was "identified as an agent of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU)."
"He carried out activities for Russia using his journalistic status. As a result, he was able to move freely around Europe and the world, including zones affected by armed conflicts and areas of political tension," Polish authorities said.
They also said that during his time in Poland he "obtained information the use of which by the Russian secret services could have a direct negative impact on the internal and external security and defense of our country" and was heading to Ukraine to "continue his activities."
Rubtsov denied the accusations.
Oleg Sukhov
Roman Seleznev
Roman Seleznev was arrested in 2014 and charged with hacking into the databases of U.S. retailers to steal credit card data.
He was indicted on the charges in 2011 but was only arrested when he took a vacation to the Maldives in 2014.
A search of his laptop revealed he had 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers, the U.S. Justice Department said.
It added that he made at least $2 million in profit from selling the data.
Roman Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a longtime member of Russia's parliament.
Vladislav Klyushin
Vladislav Klyushin was convicted by a U.S. court in February 2023 of making millions of dollars by using hacked information to conduct insider trading.
He had been arrested in Switzerland in 2021 before being extradited to the U.S.
"The jury saw Mr. Klyushin for exactly what he is – a cybercriminal and a cheat," the prosecutor said after he was convicted.
Vadim Konoshchenko
Vadim Konoshchenko was detained in Estonia several times whilst trying to smuggle U.S. weapons and technology into Russia.
After being indicted in December 2022, he was finally extradited to the U.S. in July 2023 on suspicion of smuggling and sanctions violations.
