This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, published 20th of December.
On December 15, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock announced that from Germany expel two Russian diplomats… She motivated the decision by the verdict that the German court passed 56-year-old Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov (Krasikov) in the case of the murder of former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.
“In his indictment, the Prosecutor General concluded that the crime was committed on behalf of the state authorities of the Russian Federation. The court agreed with this point of view in today’s decision. This murder on behalf of the state – as determined by the court today – constitutes a serious violation of German law and German sovereignty, “said head Berbock.
The Russian Foreign Ministry considers the sentence to Sokolov unfair and biased, and Khangoshvili is called “one of the leaders terrorist gangs “.
On December 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador to Moscow in connection with the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the FRG.
“A decisive protest was made to the head of the German diplomatic mission in Moscow in connection with the unfriendly decision of the FRG government. […] It was indicated that the Russian side categorically rejects the unfounded and divorced from reality accusations of the involvement of Russian state structures in this crime, put forward as part of this verdict, which is in the nature of an explicit political order. The German Ambassador was informed that two diplomatic employees of the German Embassy in Russia were declared persona non grata as a symmetrical response to the unfriendly decision of the German government, and it was also emphasized that the Russian side would invariably adequately respond in a proportionate manner to any potential confrontational attacks by Berlin against us in the future. “, – reads the statement of the Foreign Ministry.
On August 23, 2019, a killer on a bicycle drove up to Khangoshvili and killed him with several shots… The offender was detained by German police. The journalists found out that the real name of the detainee is Krasikov and he associated with the special forces of the FSB.
June 2020 the German authorities charged him with murder and illegal possession of weapons. He accepted the order for the murder of Khangoshvili from departments that are subordinate to the government of the Russian Federation, the German prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that Khangoshvili – “bloody action movie”, allegedly involved in the explosions in the Moscow metro.
In October 2020 in Berlin the trial of Krasikov began, he was read the text of the accusation of committing the murder of Khangoshvili.
In March 2021 Ukraine handed over evidence to Germany in the case of Khangoshvili’s murder, discovered during a special operation in Kharkov.
December 15 Krasikov was found guilty in this murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Khangoshvili is an ethnic Chechen who was born in the Pankisi Gorge (Georgia). According to “German wave”, he had a Georgian passport in the name of Tornike Kavtarashvili. During the Second Chechen War, he commanded one of the units that fought against Russia, and later collaborated with the Georgian special services. In 2015, Khangoshvili was assassinated in Tbilisi. After that, he went to Ukraine, and then to Germany.
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