Moscow will take action in response to the decision of the German Foreign Ministry to declare two representatives of the Russian embassy in Berlin persona non grata, said on Wednesday, December 15, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
“Berlin’s unfriendly actions will not remain without an adequate response. In the near future, a statement will be made in this regard, ”she wrote in Telegram.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, in turn, called the decision unfair and politically motivated. According to him, it will further complicate relations between Moscow and Berlin. The deputy lamented that it is with such steps that interaction with the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany begins, and recalled that Russia will give an adequate and symmetrical answer.
Two Russian diplomats were expelled earlier Wednesday under the pretext of Russian involvement in the Berlin murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili after a Berlin court found guilty of the murder of Russian Vadim Sokolov.
According to the investigation, Sokolov shot Khangoshvili in Berlin’s Little Tiergarten park on August 23, 2019, after which he tried to escape, but was detained. Spiegel, Bellingcat and Insider (the latter two are recognized by foreign agents in Russia) reported that the attacker’s real name was Vadim Krasikov. He allegedly arrived in the European Union with forged documents.
Khangoshvili was the commander of one of the separatist units that fought against federal forces during the Second Chechen War. The militant survived an armed attack in May 2015 in the center of Tbilisi, after which he and his family left Georgia for political asylum in Germany.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he was also one of the organizers of the explosions in the Moscow metro. At the same time, Putin denied accusations that the Russian special services could be involved in the murder of Khangoshvili, stressing that “this is a gangster environment, and anything can happen there.”
.