The convicted assassin who was the linchpin of the biggest prisoner swap in decades is a member of the most powerful security agency in Russia, the Kremlin acknowledged on Friday, and had served in a special unit with some agents who now guard President Vladimir V. Putin.
The ties help explain Mr. Putin’s determination to free the assassin, Vadim Krasikov, from the German prison where he was serving time for murder. The effort culminated on Thursday when Mr. Krasikov and seven other former prisoners returned to Moscow after an exchange with Western nations that involved 24 adults and seven countries.
This was the first time that Moscow had admitted that Mr. Krasikov had been working for the Russian state in the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., an agency that is a successor to the Soviet K.G.B., in which Mr. Putin served in the early stage of his career. The F.S.B. was also the agency that was at the center of the negotiations with the C.I.A. about the swap, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said.
Mr. Putin has not hid his admiration for Mr. Krasikov, who had been jailed in Germany since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen former separatist fighter in Berlin. In an interview in February, Mr. Putin referred to Mr. Krasikov as “a patriot” who was doing his duty by eliminating an enemy of the Russian state.
When the freed prisoners arrived at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow at about 10:30 Thursday night, Mr. Putin hugged Mr. Krasikov, the first of the freed to disembark the plane.
Mr. Peskov said that it was “very important” for Mr. Putin to greet the freed Russian prisoners in person.
“This is a tribute to those people who serve their country,” Mr. Peskov told reporters during a briefing by telephone. “After difficult ordeals they got the opportunity — thanks to the very hard work of many many people — to return to their homeland.”
Mr. Peskov also revealed that the two children of Artyom and Anna Dultsev, who had served as undercover spies in the Russian “illegals program” and were imprisoned in Slovenia, had only learned while on the plane to Moscow that they were Russian and “had anything to do” with Russia.
The children apparently believed they were Argentine, since their parents had posed in Slovenia as a couple from Argentina.
Mr. Krasikov and the other returnees received a hero’s welcome from Mr. Putin, who made a rare trip to the airport to greet them.
The Russian-made government plane pulled up in front of the V.I.P. terminal reserved for foreign dignitaries. Holding their rifles, officers of the honor guard flanked the red-painted pathway that leads toward the terminal building.
Mr. Putin stood next to the plane’s ramp, its steps covered with a red carpet, as his aides held flowers for him to give to Ms. Dultseva and her daughter.
In the past years, Mr. Putin hasn’t traveled to the airport even to greet foreign leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China last year, and his presence underscored how he viewed the swap as a personal triumph and a show of support for loyalists who carried out his wishes.
Inside the terminal, Mr. Putin thanked those prisoners “who are directly related to military service” for their loyalty to their “oath, duty and the Motherland.” He promised to decorate them with state awards and discuss their future in Russia
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