Swapping FSB Hitman Krasikov Sends a Confusing Signal to Georgia

Consideration for Georgia was absent from the euphoria around the prisoner swap between the U.S., Germany, and Russia. It has set free several Russian opposition figures and a WSJ journalist, Evan Gershkovich, among others, in exchange for several Russians, including Vadim Krasikov, the convicted murderer of the Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. Khangoshvili, murdered on behalf of the Russian state, was not only a Georgian citizen but also a retired military officer and security agent. Ignoring his sacrifice is shameful for Georgia but also for its allies.

Giorgi Kandelaki is a former Georgian MP and Chair of the Georgian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He currently works as a project manager at the Soviet Past Research Laboratory (Sovlab), a think tank dedicated to researching Georgia’s totalitarian past and countering Russian disinformation’s weaponization of history. 

 Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was a Georgian national of Chechen ethnic origin who fought against Russia in the Second Chechen War and was a Georgian military officer during Russia’s August 2008 invasion. As Michael Weiss convincingly argued in a September 2019 article, Khangoshvili, despite his ethnic heritage, was first and foremost a Georgian patriot.

He participated in security cooperation programs between Georgia and the United States and was so trustworthy that the CIA would recruit individuals to combat Islamic fundamentalism based on Khangoshvili’s recommendations.

 “Khangoshvili wasn’t just a veteran from Chechnya. He was a very capable spy and did much to undermine FSB antics in Georgia. Explains why Putin had him murdered,” Weiss wrote.

That Khangoshvili’s own country – Georgia – which he served honorably, chose to remain completely silent about his murder in the middle of Berlin could be seen as an important symptom exposing the growing Russian influence in Georgia.

While at the time of the assassination, Georgia was still pretending to be a committed US and NATO ally (which it does no longer), and Western bureaucracies were all too keen to continue playing this kabuki theater despite numerous warning signs, the German Federal Prosecution minced no words on Russia’s infiltration of Georgia:  “The background to the killing order was the victim’s opposition to the Russian central government, to the governments of its autonomous republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, and to the pro-Russian government of Georgia’, the Prosecution’s statement reads. 

Indeed, this was not the first time he was targeted. Khangoshvili was shot in downtown Tbilisi in 2015 – a crime that Georgian authorities did not seriously investigate. He was then denied state protection, his firearm license was reportedly taken away, and he was told to leave the country. Hence, Khangoshvili’s asylum claim in Germany, which, nonetheless, failed to protect him from the FSB hitman. Still, the German prosecution and courts did their duty and put the Russian killer behind bars.

Letting Krasikov go to claim the award for his crime sends a wrong signal to the Georgian people – as if the sacrifice Georgians made to the common interests with the West is ignored. This plays into the hands of the Georgian Dream government under an oligarch, Bidzina Ivanishvili, which has been peddling the idea of the West’s betrayal and inability to protect Georgia and Georgians from the Russian threat, the rhetoric they use as a cover for pushing the country into Kremlin’s clutches.

The success of that campaign, which has been most visibly spearheaded by the enactment of the Kremlin-backed and inspired foreign agents law that aims to destroy Georgia’s civil society, would be a tragedy for the Georgian people but also a decisive blow to the U.S. interests.  By omission of the Georgia dimension from the prisoner swap, the U.S. Administration ignored the three decades of a strategic partnership with Georgia.

Admittedly, Tbilisi could not be included in the swap conversation because its government is a Russian proxy. However, the U.S. administration – as well as Berlin – could be advised to consider the optics of that deal when seen from Georgia.

They should show that commitment to the Georgian people’s resolve to remain on the Euro-Atlantic path is rock solid, and the sacrifice of the Georgian servicemen and women is both valued and recognized.

Surely, Khangoshvili would have wanted exactly this for his homeland – Georgia. 

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