In the prisoner swap, Putin's signals that Russia won't forget its security operatives abroad

In the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a clear, morale-boosting message to his security services: If you get caught, Russia will bring you home. For the Kremlin, Vadim Krasikov, the hitman imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen militant in Berlin, was perhaps the key component in the exchange that saw eight Russians swapped for 16 Westerners and Russian dissidents who had been imprisoned in recent years. In exchange for Krasikov and seven others, those freed by Moscow included American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan.