Why Germany was key to prisoner swap deal with Russia | DW News

The German government played a key role in Thursday's prisoner swap between Russia and the West, in which Moscow released 16 prisoners in exchange for eight Russians held in the West.

The main figure in the swap, which involved several countries, was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of killing a former Chechen militant in Berlin in 2019.

Russia had approached the United States as early as 2022 with an offer to release US prisoners in exchange for Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany. However, because Krasikov was not an American prisoner, US officials did not think the offer was serious.