Russian man handed life sentence over ‘state-contracted’ Berlin murder

Germany is to expell two Russian diplomats after a Berlin court imposed a life sentence on a Russian man for the “state-contracted” murder of an exiled Chechen rebel leader in August 2019.

Vadim Krasikov was found guilty of shooting dead Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent, in broad daylight in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park.

German prosecutors, drawing on intelligence information, said the killing was politically motivated, and that the 56-year-old gunman flew in days beforehand under an alias and received assistance from spies inside the Russian embassy.

“This state-contracted murder . . . poses a serious violation of German law and the sovereignty of the federal republic of Germany,” said foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. Russian ambassador Sergei Netschajew was summoned to the foreign ministry for the news, after which Moscow said it would respond in kind.

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On August 23th, 2019 eyewitnesses saw the victim shot from behind with a silencer-fitted revolver. When the man was on the ground, eyewitnesses said, the gunman fired two more shots into his head then threw a bike, gun and wig into the nearby Spree river. The gunman fled but was intercepted by police.

The dead man’s relatives, participating in the trial as co-plaintiffs, said the killing was about Russia “sending a message” to its political enemies.

Three years before his death Khangoshvili, who fought against Russia in the Chechen war, claimed asylum in Germany.

While Russian president Vladimir Putin described the dead man as a “bandit” and a “bloodthirsty man”, the Berlin judge described him in his ruling as a “committed patriot and fighter”.

Krasikov’s defence lawyers urged the court to strike down the charges, claiming mistaken identity while Russia’s ambassador to Germany warned the ruling was a “politically-motivated decision”.

A week into his new job, chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag on Wednesday he was watching a Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border with “great concern”.

“Any violation of territorial integrity will have a high price,” he said.

The German leader is facing growing pressure, from Nato allies and from within his coalition, to refuse energy company Gazprom a permit to commence operation of its Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline, bringing Russian gas directly to Germany.