Russian government officials are requesting for one of its former spies convicted of murder in Germany last year be included in the Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan prisoner exchange, reports CNN.

Russian officials communicated their request earlier this month to include Vadim Krasikov in the trade through an informal backchannel with U.S. officials. Krasikov was convicted in Germany for murdering a former Chechen fighter, Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili, in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten, a park, in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.

But the Russians' request was deemed problematic, sources told CNN, because Krasikov is in German custody. Additionally, because the Russians communicated the request through a backchannel rather than formally, the U.S. did not view the communication as legitimate.

Still, sources with the German government have mentioned that the request to include Krasikov in a potential trade has not been seriously considered.

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, says that "holding two wrongfully detained Americans hostage for the release of a Russian assassin in a third country's custody is not a serious counter-offer. It is a bad faith attempt to avoid the deal on the table that Russia should take."

One State Department official added that "in order to preserve the best opportunity for a successful outcome, we're not going to comment publicly on any speculation."

CNN adds that unnamed sources have told them that even if Krasikov is not included in the trade, the Russians will still likely demand two prisoners be released in exchange for Griner and Whelan. Russian government officials have indicated publicly in recent weeks that they want to see the release of Viktor Bout and Roman Seleznev, a hacker, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence in the U.S.

"I'm not sure that any additional activity, especially in the public sphere, will help a correct, balanced compromise and find a basis to alleviate the fate of a lot of our compatriots such as Viktor Bout, who has health problems, [or] such as Seleznev, and many others," Sergey Ryabkov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister told reporters earlier this month.

U.S. officials believe Russia is trying to buy time until Griner's trial is over.

Griner was convicted in Russia on cannabis charges. And Whelan was convicted of espionage charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. The State Department has said they are both being wrongfully detained.

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