Russia responds to Germany's expulsion of diplomats after verdict in Khangoshvili's case

Two German diplomats were declared persona non grata in Russia in response to similar German actions against Russian diplomats after the verdict in the case of the murder of Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has treated the sentence to a Russian citizen found guilty of assassinating Khangoshvili as a political order.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 15, the Russian, whom the witness identified as Vadim Krasikov, an agent of Russian special services, was sentenced by a Berlin court to life imprisonment under the murder case of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. In its verdict to Krasikov, the court highlighted the role of Russian authorities. After the verdict was announced, two employees of the Russian Embassy in Berlin were declared persona non grata.

The Russian MFA has expressed its protest to Géza Andreas von Geyr, the head of the German diplomatic mission in Moscow, in connection with the "unfriendly decision of the German government" to declare two diplomats of the Russian Embassy to Germany persona non grata. "As a pretext for deportation," they've used the imposition on December 15 in Berlin of an "absolutely unfair and biased conviction" against the citizen of Russia "V. A. Sokolov" within the murder case "of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, one of the former leaders of terrorist gangs in Northern Caucasus, a citizen of Georgia," the Russian MFA has stated today.

The Russian party "categorically rejects the unjustified and torn away from reality accusations of the involvement of Russian state structures in this crime, put forward within the verdict that bears clear features of an explicit political order," says the statement posted on the website of the Russian MFA.

In response, the Russia's MFA declared two diplomats of the German Embassy to Russia persona non grata "as a symmetrical response to the unfriendly decision of the German government."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 20, 2021 at 08:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.