Germany Expels Two Diplomats: Russia Calls The Action Is Unfriendly, Could Affect New Government

JAKARTA - Russian authorities have called Germany's expulsion of two Moscow diplomats an unfriendly act, saying it could affect Germany's new government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Germany has decided to expel and persona non grata two Russian diplomats linked to the murder of Georgian citizen Khangoshvili in 2019.

"Berlin's unfriendly actions will not remain without an adequate response. In the near future, a statement will be made in this regard," wrote Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Telegram, quoted from Al Mayadeen on December 16.

Meanwhile, in a commentary on this decision, first deputy head of the international affairs committee of Russia's upper house Vladimir Dzhabarov said Germany's decision would prevent Berlin's new government from improving their relations with Russia.

Russia ordered the killing in broad daylight in a Berlin park of a former Chechen militant, a German court said on Wednesday, punishing the agent for the 2019 act of "state terrorism" with life imprisonment.

Georgian citizen Tornike Khangoshvili was killed by three shots from a Glock pistol on a sunny August day in 2019, in retaliation for his role fighting alongside Chechen separatists against Moscow in the 2000s, said judge Olaf Arnoldi. He convicted Vadim Krasikov of a "very serious" crime.

Germany summoned the Russian ambassador after the decision, telling him that two of the embassy's 101 diplomatic staff would be expelled, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

The findings could increase pressure on Germany's week-long government to strengthen its stance on Moscow, amid warnings that Russia could consider military action against Ukraine.

"The state organs of the government of the Russian Federation took the decision to liquidate Tornike Khangoshvili in Berlin," Arnoldi said, adding Russia had issued Krasikov with forged papers that could be used to travel for the assassination, citing Reuters.

"Khangashvili had surrendered against the Russian Federation years before. He has not held a weapon in his hands since 2008. This is not an act of self-defense by Russia. This is and is nothing but state terrorism," Arnoldi stressed.

The Russian embassy in Berlin said the ruling was "non-objective and politically motivated", the TASS news agency reported.

"This murder, ordered by the state, is a serious violation of German law and German sovereignty. Actions such as the murder in the Tiergarten park (Berlin) weigh heavily on relations between our countries," Baerbock criticized.

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin described Khangashvili as a "blood terrorist", accusing him of involvement in crimes including the 2004 Moscow metro bombings that killed 10 people.

Separately, a lawyer for the suspect, who stated he was not Krasikov but Vadim Sokolov, a construction engineer from St. Petersburg, promising a decision on whether to appeal within a week, said the case against his client was built on allegations, not evidence.

Arnoldi admits that Khangoshvili, who has lived in self-imposed exile since a previous assassination attempt in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2015, was a killer. However, the judge said his killing was a 'professional operation' that could not have been carried out without local assistance in Berlin.

Arnoldi further said Krasikov flew to Paris a few days before the attacks, provided with a fake passport and thousands of euros in cash for the planned vacation, and from there traveled to Berlin.

He shot Khangoshvili as he cycled through the park, before hiding in the bushes to take off his dark clothes and baseball cap, trim his beard, and put on the clothes of a tourist strolling the German capital.

Only the presence of witnesses thwarted his plan, said Arnoldi. Within minutes, armed police surrounded Krasikov while others retrieved his clothes, murder weapon, and Khangoshvili's bicycle from the river where the agent threw him.

Russia itself has stated that the convicted murderer is not Krasikov. But Arnoldi said photos provided by Ukrainian authorities of his marriage to his Ukrainian wife, along with comparisons of their tattoos, proved beyond a doubt that the bearer of the fake papers was a man they identified as an agent of Russia's FSB security service.

The fact he had obtained the fake papers more than a month before the attack shows that he is supported by the Russian state, Arnoldi said, noting Russian law allows his agents to kill 'terrorists', even abroad, even if only with the president's approval.

"Four children lost their father, two siblings, their brother," the judge said.

Security experts warned that agents stationed at heritage embassies in former Soviet Union allies in eastern Europe could easily travel anywhere in the European Union. A year before the murder, Russian agents poisoned a former Russian agent and his daughter in a British provincial town.

To note, the Russian Embassy in the west has attracted attention in connection with the previous mysterious death. Earlier this year, a young diplomat was found dead on a Berlin street after apparently falling from a window on the embassy's top floor. Russia refused to allow an autopsy and repatriated his remains.