Status: 12/12/2022 02:08 am
During the negotiations about the prisoner exchange with the US basketball player Griner, Moscow is said to have demanded the transfer of the so-called Tiergarten murderer. But the US side said it declined.
In the course of the negotiations for the release of the US basketball player Brittney Griner, according to US information, Russia tried to get the Russian Vadim K., who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the Tiergarten murder, free.
“They seemed to want a man named K. who is being held in Germany,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC. “He’s a killer,” Kirby said.
USA: Not considered a serious counter-offer
However, this was not considered a serious counter-offer by the USA. After all, Washington cannot intervene if the man is not in US custody.
As early as July, there were reports that Russia submitted the request to the United States through informal intelligence channels. According to the reports, the request was classified as problematic, among other things, because the 57-year-old is in prison in Germany.
Diplomatic distortions
In August 2019, a Georgian was shot dead in the Kleiner Tiergarten park in Berlin. The Berlin Court of Appeal had sentenced the Russian perpetrator to life imprisonment. The judges were convinced that he was acting on behalf of Russian state authorities. Russia denies such allegations. The so-called Tiergarten murder had led to diplomatic upheavals between Germany and Russia.
On Thursday, the US and Russia held a new prisoner exchange despite tensions between the two countries over the war in Ukraine. US basketball player Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia for an alleged drug offense, was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor But at Abu Dhabi airport. Negotiations on this had been going on for months. The US also wants to free American Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia. He was convicted of alleged espionage in 2018.