Suspicions of Russian state involvement in an apparent contract killing in central Berlin earlier this year have led Germany to expel two Russian diplomats.
The two diplomats have been designated as personae non-gratae, the German Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, adding that the government suspects Russian intelligence agencies were involved in the shooting.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned Germany’s move as “unfriendly” and “baseless,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
A senior Russian lawmaker who serves as an authority on foreign policy said Germany should expect to have two of its diplomats expelled from Russia.
Russia’s response should be “adequate and symmetrical,” the head of the lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said in comments carried by Interfax.
The German authorities moved ahead of a summit on Ukraine to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday.
Germany’s federal prosecution service is now responsible for the probe into the shooting of the man, a Chechen with Georgian nationality, which took place in broad daylight on August 23 in a small park in the inner-city neighbourhood of Moabit.
The killer had approached on a bicycle and aimed at the 40-year-old victim’s back and head.
Federal prosecutors investigate cases where there is firm suspicion of involvement by foreign powers. The espionage department of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in the western city of Karlsruhe will work on the case.
The German investigation is also looking into a possible link to officials in Chechnya, a republic within the Russian Federation that has its own constitution but is still controlled by Moscow.
A 49-year-old suspect in the killing, who is also implicated in the murder of a Russian businessman in 2013, was detained shortly after the murder.
The man, who carries a Russian passport, has maintained his right to keep silent.
The Georgian victim, of ethnic Chechen descent, is said to have fought against Russia on the side of Muslim Chechens in the early 2000s, Georgia’s Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center reported.
He is also reported to have survived a May 2015 attempt on his life in the Georgian capital of Tiblisi.
Earlier Wednesday, Putin’s spokesman adamantly denied Russian state involvement in the murder.
“What does this have to do with the Russian authorities? These are absolutely baseless assumptions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by Interfax.
“This topic is somehow exalted by the German media, but that does not mean this is the case,” Peskov said.
