BREAKING: @Bellingcat & its investigative partners have identified the killer of Georgian Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who earlier this year was shot in Berlin by an assassin arriving on a bicycle, as Vadim Nikolaevich Krasikov, a Russian citizen aged 54. bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
In previous reports, we had proven that the killer used the fake identity of Vadim Sokolov, 49, which had been fabricated by Russian authorities. No records of such person ever existing could be found, yet he was able to receive state-issued travel documents and obtain an EU visa
Along with our partners, we looked for "Sokolov"'s real identity for months, using as clues his police mugshot and visa application photo, and the assumption that he had had prior criminal record, based on a characteristic tattoo seen in one photograph.
Our partner @DerSPIEGEL found out that a Russian suspected murderer had previously been sought by Russia via Interpol's red notice, but that his warrant had been revoked in 2015. We began searching for suspects fitting such profile.
@DerSPIEGEL Soon enough, we found an odd entry in a Russian leaked database of suspects: a certain Vadim Krasikov was wanted for murder of a businessman committed in June 2013. However, in 2015, Russia stopped searching for Krasikov 
@DerSPIEGEL We tried to find the status of this warrant in the current Russian police database. We were told that no such record exists, and that Krasikov has never been a registered suspect or offender. We found that very odd.
@DerSPIEGEL We then tried searched in open sources for a murder that took place on 19 June 2013. Bingo! We found a Russian entrepreneur had been murdered in Moscow with a hand gun shortly after midnight on that date. But that wasn't the only match....
@DerSPIEGEL We discovered that that murder had been perpetrated by a killer who arrived on a bicycle - shot the victim in the chest and head, and left on a bike: a nearly identical modus operandi as the Berlin killer in 2019.
@DerSPIEGEL We were pretty sure by now Vadim Krasikov *was* the Moscow bicycle killer. But was he the Berlin bycicle killer too? On paper, he was 5 years older than "Sokolov"... Yet....who wouldn't make themselves younger if they could. We needed a photograph for a conclusive match.
@DerSPIEGEL Getting a photo of Krasikov turned out to be harder than usual. Most traces of his existence had vanished from current "live" Russian databases. We found out there was no driver's license issued for Vadim. Yet, in open sources we could see he had owned a car.
@DerSPIEGEL Then, by stroke of luck, we found an archived copy of Krasikov's driver's license that had remained scanned years ago during one of his car sale transactions. We compared that photo with "Sokolov"'s, using Microsoft's Azure, and, bingo...
@DerSPIEGEL We obtained a near-perfect match. Microsoft Azure's face recognition system is fined-tuned to conclude a "match" at any confidence factor higher than 0.5. In this case we got a resounding 0.83 factor. There was no doubt it was the same person.
@DerSPIEGEL We also approached sources at several law enforcement agencies around Europe asking if they could find an old - now removed - Interpol search warrant for Krasikov. 3 sources confirmed, and gave us archived copies of his Red Notice photo. A match again.
@DerSPIEGEL By now we had proven that the bike killer from Berlin was the bike killer from Moscow, and that Russia stopped searching for Krasikov in 2015. Had they arrested him? If so, not for long, as we found airline records showing he traveled extensively from 2016 until his Berlin trip.
@DerSPIEGEL So how was it that a murder suspect was allowed to travel extensively within and outside Russia, and then given a fake new identity a month before murdering a person whom Russia had declared a foe? It's a question Moscow will have to answer to German investigative authorities.
@DerSPIEGEL As German media reported today, the Federal Prosecutor's Office has taken the unusual step to escalate the murder investigation to a federal level - a step reserved for suspected state crimes. A formal announcement of the step - and its rationale - is expected this week.
@DerSPIEGEL The last mile of this long-running investigation was conducted jointly with @DerSPIEGEL and @the_ins_ru. spiegel.de/politik/auslan… theins.ru/politika/190966 The @dossier_center made invaluable contributions to the overall investigation.
