Germany expels two Russian diplomats after Tiergarten murder conviction
Germany summoned the Russian ambassador and expelled two diplomates after an alleged FSB operative was found guilty of killing an ethnic Chechen. The 2019 murder took place in broad daylight in central Berlin.A Berlin court has sentenced a Russian national, Vadim Krasikov, to life in prison for the 2019 murder of an ethnic Chechen in a park in the German capital.
Prosecutors believe Krasikov was acting on the orders of Russia's state security agency, the FSB. They demonstrated at length during the course of the trial how Russian authorities had arranged an alias, Vadim Solokov, for the man, with him traveling across several European borders under that identity in the days leading up to the murder.
His victim, an ethnic Chechen of Georgian nationality, was shot dead at point-blank range in broad daylight on August 23, 2019. Krasikov was arrested later that day.
The defendant's lawyer has pledged to appeal the verdict.
What is the response from Berlin and Moscow?
Following the Wednesday verdict, Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said her ministry had summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechayev.
"We told him that two members of the embassy staff would be declared persona non grata," Baerbock said.
She described the Tiergarten killing as "the murder by state contract" which severely violated German law and Germany's sovereignty.
The German minister also said she spoke with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and stressed that Berlin "wants and needs" to have an open and honest dialogue with Moscow.
"This needs to be based on the international law and mutual respect," she said.
Commenting on the Wednesday ruling, Moscow said it was a "political" decision against the backdrop of "general anti-Russian sentiment."
"We consider this verdict to be a biased, politically motivated decision that seriously aggravates already difficult Russian-German relations," said Russia's Nechayev.
Who was targeted?
The victim was classed as a terrorist by Russian security services — he was accused of fighting as an insurgent against Russian forces in Chechnya, and later of being involved in a bombing attack on the Moscow metro."In June 2019 at the latest, state organs of the central government of the Russian Federation took the decision to liquidate [the victim] in Berlin," Judge Olaf Arnoldi said.
The judge noted that the victim "had not held a weapon in his hands since 2008"
"This was not an act of self-defense by Russia. This was and is nothing other than state terrorism," Arnoldi said.
"It was meant to set an example."
What happened in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten?
Krasikov was convicted of a murder in which prosecutors say he approached on a bicycle before pulling out a Glock 26 pistol and firing two shots at his victim from behind. The gun had a silencer on it.
Once the victim was on the ground, prosecutors allege Krasikov then shot him in the head before making a getaway on a bicycle. The man died at the scene, but witnesses reported Krasikov and he was soon arrested.
Later, police divers recovered the murder weapon, a wig and the bicycle Krasikov is said to have used to carry out the slaying from the Spree River at a location near the crime scene.
The murder was carried out just minutes from the German chancellery and the Bundestag parliament buildings.
The case became known colloquially in German as the "Tiergarten murder," after the Kleiner Tiergarten park in Berlin where it took place.
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