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Putin hit man seen as Russia's big prize in prison swap: 'High-value asset'

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Putin hit man seen as Russia's big prize in prison swap: 'High-value asset'

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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. 

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“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.”

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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)

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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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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Several injured after car plows into Italy crowd, driver stabs passerby: report

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Several injured after car plows into Italy crowd, driver stabs passerby: report

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A car reportedly drove into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring several people. 

The vehicle slammed into a store window, and its driver allegedly stabbed a passerby who attempted to intervene, Reuters reported, citing local Italian media.

Mayor Massimo Mezzetti told Italian TV no one was killed but eight people were injured, including four who were in critical condition, according to The Associated Press.

Blood is seen next to a destroyed car on a street of Modena, Italy, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Lapresse via AP)

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He said a woman pinned against a shop window may require the amputation of both legs.

Financial Police patrol a scene after a car incident in a street of Modena, Italy, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Lapresse via AP)

The driver is a 31-year-old man born in Bergamo and raised in Modena with Maghreb origins, Mezzetti said. 

The man was detained and was being questioned at police headquarters as authorities worked to determine whether he was under the influence of substances or acted deliberately, the mayor said.

Mezzetti said the vehicle entered one of the city’s main streets and “drove onto the sidewalk, sending several people flying,” before crashing into the shop window.

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Lampedusa migrant landing: newborn dies, probe opened

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Lampedusa migrant landing: newborn dies, probe opened

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A tragedy unfolded in the night between Friday and Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, where a newborn migrant baby girl just a few weeks old died of hypothermia immediately after disembarking and while being rushed to the island’s outpatient clinic.

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At 4.30 a.m., after being rescued by the V1307 patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza, 55 people from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone landed at Favarolo pier. Among them were seven women and six minors. The baby girl, whose condition immediately appeared critical, was taken together with her mother to the medical facility, where doctors could do nothing but declare her dead.

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Investigation opened into the baby girl’s death

The Agrigento prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into the tragic case and ordered a post-mortem examination of the child’s body, a necessary step to confirm hypothermia as the actual cause of death.

The body is being transferred to the mortuary at the Cala Pisana cemetery, while in the coming hours the mother will be questioned by investigators to reconstruct the details of the crossing and establish exactly how and when the baby fell ill.

According to accounts from other migrants on board, the group had set off from Sfax-El Amra in Tunisia at around two o’clock yesterday morning, making the journey in a seven-metre metal boat that cost between 400 and 600 euros per person.

The baby girl’s mother, originally from Côte d’Ivoire, was later taken to the hotspot in the Imbriacola district together with her other daughter, aged around two. According to reports, the woman is currently in a severe state of shock over the loss of her child and is receiving continuous support from staff of the Italian Red Cross, which manages the island’s reception centre.

The centre’s director, Imad Dalil, confirmed to Italian media that psychosocial support measures had been activated. “The mother and the sister are here in the hotspot and are in good physical condition; for them and for the other people psychological support was activated immediately and in the coming hours the medical and psychosocial teams will continue their work,” he said.

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NGOs’ reaction

The German NGO Sea-Watch voiced its outrage in a strongly worded post on X. “While the state attacks those who save lives at sea, investigating the captain of Sea-Watch, a one-month-old baby has arrived in LAMPEDUSA, dead in her mother’s arms, after a three-day crossing. Who will be held responsible for this injustice?” The outburst refers to the news, received by the NGO after arriving in Brindisi with 166 rescued people, that a criminal investigation has been opened against the captain of the Sea-Watch 5 on suspicion of aiding illegal entry.

The UN agency specialising in the protection and assistance of people forced to flee war, violence and persecution (UNHCR) also intervened to express deep condolences and grave concern over yet another victim claimed along the Mediterranean routes.

“A mother has lost her newborn daughter, who arrived dead this morning together with 54 other people in Lampedusa. Deep sorrow and concern for the many children and adults who should not be dying in the Mediterranean,” reads a post published on social media by UNHCR, which explains that the agency is on the ground providing assistance to the mother and all the other survivors of the landing.

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Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s bid to restore congressional map favoring Democrats

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Supreme Court rejects Virginia’s bid to restore congressional map favoring Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.

The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.

In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.

But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.

The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.

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The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.

Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.

That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.

The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.

“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.

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The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.

A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.

Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.

“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.

The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.

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“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.

___

Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.

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