Fighter, marksman, likes to work alone
About what he was like Khangovshvili, President Putin said in an interview with Tucker Carlson. During the second Chechen campaign, the militant commander brutally executed Russian prisoners of war. After the war ended, he fled to Germany. According to German investigators, Krasikov shot a militant three times in Tiergarten Park.
According to former colleagues of Krasikov, his biography is typical for a special forces soldier. In his school years, he was crazy about the Airborne Forces. He was engaged in wrestling, boxing, went to district and regional competitions, became a silver medalist of the Chimkent region in freestyle wrestling (he was born and spent his youth in the Uzbek SSR).
He did his military service in the Airborne Forces. While still in «quarantine», he was assigned to reconnaissance, from there he went to the special forces.
He graduated from a military school (presumably the Novosibirsk combined arms school). Served in Transbaikalia. Every year he took part in the armed forces championship in hand-to-hand combat.
There observers from Vympel drew attention to him. and invited me over. He left without a second thought. Good shooter. Every year I participated in the sniper competition of Alpha fighters. from the CIS countries. Russian team from «Alpha» always took first place. Only the fighters of the Belarusian “Alpha” could provide more or less normal competition to them.
They also say about Krasikov that he is a professional terrorist liquidator, likes to work alone. He can track down a «target» for a long time.
In Afghanistan, he single-handedly pursued a spy for several kilometers in a gorge. He caught up with him and «packed» him up — until the helicopter arrived.
In Alpha they call people like him «clingy». He is happy with successful work, and feels satisfaction when a terrorist is eliminated. As his colleagues say, he «takes off into the clouds».
In addition, his colleagues say that Krasikov is a genius at disguise, and easily changes his appearance. He can transform into a hippie, a professor, a woman, or an old man. Smart, cunning, daring, creative.
Knows several languages: conversational German, English, Farsi.
It is also noted that the fighter's personal life did not work out, there are no details.
As for Khangovshvili, who was liquidated in Germany, it is known that he was Shamil Basayev's moneybags and his right hand.
Financed the operation in Budyonnovsk. A creature of the British special services. But he was eliminated not only for Budyonnovsk. At the instigation of his curators, he was preparing something else in Russia, like «Crocus Hall» or «Dubrovka». For this, he was cultivating Chechens who had settled in Germany and France. He was recruiting a team of thugs. Ours simply worked ahead of the curve — that's all. When Khangovshvili was eliminated, everything fell apart. And this is directly due to Krasikov.