Freed US journalist: Gershkovich’s explosive analysis into Russian secret companies | EUROtoday

A great 4 months after his launch from Russian captivity, US journalist Evan Gershkovich printed an article within the Wall Street Journal concerning the secret service division answerable for his arrest. This is the beforehand largely unknown counterintelligence division DKRO of the Russian secret service FSB, in accordance with the report printed on Thursday.

The DKRO was tasked with securing the discharge of the “Tiergarten murderer” Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Berlin. The division then “accelerated its campaign to arrest American citizens” and arrested him, amongst others, Gershkovich reported. It was clearly supposed to function “bait,” in accordance with the article that the 33-year-old wrote along with three colleagues.

The division additionally ordered the arrest of a whole lot of Russians

“I had been arrested and charged as a CIA agent because the DKRO said I was,” Gershkovich wrote. The investigator engaged on his case instructed him that this info was enough for him.

The DKRO has round 2,000 workers and is beneath the command of an officer named Dmitri Minayev, the report continued. The division not solely arrests US residents, however can be concerned in repression in Russia. The division has ordered the arrests of a whole lot of Russians “accused of espionage, collaboration or treason,” the report stated.

Gershkovich was on a analysis journey when he was arrested in March 2023. In July 2024, he was sentenced to 16 years in jail in Yekaterinburg for alleged espionage. Evidence was by no means offered; Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal had at all times rejected the espionage accusation.

On August 1, Russia and the West carried out the most important prisoner trade because the finish of the Cold War. Among others, Gershkovich and former US soldier Paul Whelan, who was additionally imprisoned in Russia, returned to their homeland.

The federal authorities had agreed to permit Krasikov to journey to Russia as a part of the trade. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for capturing a Georgian of Chechen origin within the Kleiner Tiergarten within the capital in August 2019.

The German judiciary thought-about it confirmed that Krasikov had dedicated the homicide on behalf of Russian state authorities whereas he was posing as an harmless engineer. After Krasikov’s return, the Kremlin admitted that he was an agent of Russian intelligence.