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In the biggest prisoner swap with Moscow since the Cold War, the Biden administration on Thursday secured the liberation of 16 American and German nationals held prisoner in Russia and Belarus in exchange for the release of eight Russians. 

The top of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s list was hit man Vadim Krasikov, who used the cover name Vadim Sokolov and was convicted by a German court for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen commander near Berlin’s parliamentary building. 

“Krasikov is a high-ranking colonel in the elite Spetsnaz unit of the FSB,” Rebekah Koffler, former DIA intelligence officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital in reference to Russia’s intelligence agency the Federal Security Service (FSB).

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“Krasikov is a very high-value asset who will be debriefed by the Russian security services on the operation, how he got apprehended, what he learned during the interrogations in Germany, and everything the Russians are interested in,” she explained. “These debriefings will help the Russians to make improvements in their operational tradecraft for Russian intelligence.”

Koffler also said it is likely the Putin operative will be used to train “would-be assassins for future operations, making them even more lethal and difficult to detect and apprehend. … Putin also wants to show to would-be recruits that he would personally get involved in getting his people out if they are caught. It’s a huge recruitment incentive.”

FSB assassin Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life in 2021, was exchanged on August 1st, 2024 as part of a major prisoner swap; seen here greeted by President Vladimir Putin on his arrival to Russia. (East2West)

Reuters reported that Krasikov, who was born in Kazakhstan in 1965 while it was still part of the Soviet Union, became a specialist assassin while working for the FSB, according to Bellingcat reporting. 

Despite multiple witnesses to his assassination of the Chechen commander, which was carried out in daylight, Krasikov pleaded innocent and maintained he was a St. Petersburg construction engineer visiting Berlin as a tourist who went by the name Sokolov.

Though he was never directly confirmed as an agent by Moscow, Putin indirectly spoke of Krasikov in 2023 when he expressed a desire to secure the release of someone who “eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals.”

Vladimir Putin greets FSB assassin Vadim Krasikov, as part of a major prisoner swap with the U.S. and other Western countries. (East2West)

Ukraine’s Security Service helped investigators identify the Russian FSB agent after obtaining footage of the man during his second wedding held in Kharkiv in 2010. 

According to Reuters reporting, Krasikov never recognized the court during his trial and frequently refused to listen to the translation of the proceedings provided to him.

Reports have suggested the prisoner swap would not have taken place without the release of Krasikov, placing an enormous weight on the shoulders of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“Our obligation to protect German nationals and our solidarity with the USA were important motivations,” the German government said Thursday, according to a Reuters report.

President Biden also championed Germany’s efforts in the prisoner swap and said, “I particularly owe a great sense of gratitude to the chancellor.”

Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan are shown on a plane after being released from Russian prison in a historic prisoner swap on Aug. 1, 2024. (U.S. Government)

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“The demands they were making to me required me to get some significant concessions from Germany,” he said. “But everybody stepped up. Poland stepped up, Slovenia stepped up, Turkey stepped up.”

“It matters to have relationships. It really does,” Biden added.

Among the prisoners set to return to the U.S. are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, along with legal permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

The other 12 prisoners to be brought back from Russia are all German nationals who were held as political prisoners. 

The massive swap involved at least seven countries over a number of months to pull all the Russian prisoners requested by Moscow from the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland, the White House said on Thursday.

President Biden speaks about the release of Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were detained in Russia, during a brief event where some of their relatives were in attendance at the White House on Aug. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)

“There has never been, so far as we know, been an exchange involving so many countries, so many close U.S. partners and allies working together,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.  “It’s the culmination of many rounds of complex, painstaking negotiations over many, many months.”

Biden called the historic swap a “a feat of diplomacy.”

“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” he said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s bid to end a gag order in his hush money criminal case, rejecting the Republican former president’s argument that his May conviction “constitutes a change in circumstances” that warrants lifting the restrictions.

A five-judge panel in the state’s mid-level appellate court ruled that the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, was correct in extending parts of the gag order until Trump is sentenced, writing that “the fair administration of justice necessarily includes sentencing.”

The ruling came a day after Trump’s lawyers tried to file papers asking the appellate court to immediately lift the gag order. With its ruling imminent, the court rejected the filing, which called the restrictions an “unconstitutional, election-interfering” muzzle on Trump’s free speech.

In a copy of the prospective filing provided to the Associated Press, Trump’s lawyers wrote that Vice President Kamala Harris’ entry into the presidential race gives the matter new urgency as she pits herself as an ex-prosecutor taking on a “convicted felon.”

“It is unconscionable that Harris can speak freely about this case, but President Trump cannot,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote.

Blanche declined to comment on Thursday’s ruling.

Merchan imposed the gag order in March, a few weeks before the trial started, after prosecutors raised concerns about Trump’s habit of attacking people involved in his cases. During the trial, he held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $10,000 for violations, and he threatened to jail him if he did it again.

The judge lifted some restrictions in June, freeing Trump to comment about witnesses and jurors but keeping trial prosecutors, court staffers and their families — including his own daughter — off limits until he is sentenced.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, was originally scheduled to be sentenced July 11, but Merchan postponed it until Sept. 18, if necessary, while he weighs a defense request to throw out his conviction in the wake of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

A Manhattan jury convicted Trump on May 30 of falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal, making him the first ex-president convicted of a crime.

Trump’s conviction, on 34 felony counts, arose from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. She claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump. Prosecutors said Cohen disguised the reimbursements with Trump’s knowledge by submitting monthly invoices for retainer payments as his personal lawyer. Trump’s company logged the payments to Cohen as legal expenses.

Prosecutors said the Daniels payment was part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who might have gone public during the 2016 campaign with embarrassing stories alleging Trump had extramarital sex.

Trump denies any wrongdoing and has pledged to appeal his conviction, but he would not be able to do so until he is sentenced.