Russia expelled two German diplomats on Monday in a tit-for-tat measure after a judge in Berlin accused the Kremlin of “state terrorism” for ordering the murder of a Chechen rebel in 2019.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it had declared the diplomats personae non gratae after Germany ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats last week over the incident.
Berlin’s regional court sentenced Russian national Vadim Krasikov, 56, to life in prison for shooting Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen origin who once fought in an insurgency against Moscow, in broad daylight in the Kleiner Tiergarten, a Berlin park.
“The German ambassador was informed of declaring two diplomatic employees of the German embassy to Russia personae non gratae as a symmetric response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision by the German government,” the ministry said.
“It was also stressed that the Russian side will invariably respond proportionately to any of Berlin’s potential confrontational attacks against us in the future,” it said.
The Khangoshvili murder is threatening to inflame Berlin’s ties with Moscow just as the new German coalition government, which took office just over a week ago, is wrestling with how to deal with an increasingly insurgent Russia.
Although Olaf Scholz, chancellor, hinted that he would pursue a conciliatory Ostpolitik with Moscow, Annalena Baerbock, foreign minister, has suggested toughening Germany’s stance on Russia, including possibly denying permission for the contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Baerbock said after the verdict that the murder was a “grave breach of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany”.
Germany and Russia had previously each expelled two of the other’s diplomats after the execution-style killing of Khangoshvili who was walking to a mosque in 2019.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s former chancellor, had said there would be consequences for Russia if the court determined that the Kremlin had ordered the murder.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, denied any involvement in the killing but said that Khangoshvili, considered a terrorist by Moscow’s FSB domestic security agency, was a “bandit” and a “bloodthirsty and brutal man”.
Germany’s allies in the US and EU are also concerned that Russia may be planning to invade Ukraine after massing about 100,000 troops near its border and making a series of exorbitant demands of Nato. The west has vowed to place crippling sanctions on Russia should it use force against Ukraine.
“This step is not a surprise but, in the opinion of the German government, it is completely gratuitous,” the German foreign ministry said.
Khangoshvili’s murder “represents a grave violation of Germany’s sovereignty,” the ministry added, saying that the decision to expel the diplomats “once again places strain on the relationship”.