Russia says it is expelling two German diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat move following Germany’s expulsion of two Russian diplomats after a court in Berlin convicted a Russian man of fatally shooting a former Chechen militant in Berlin on the Kremlin’s orders in 2019.
“The German Ambassador was informed about the declaration of two diplomatic employees from the German Embassy in Russia as ‘personae non gratae’ as a symmetrical response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 20.
It gave no date for when the German diplomats needed to leave Russia.
In its ruling on December 15, the second criminal division of the Higher Regional Court in Berlin said evidence showed Moscow had played a role in the murder of Tornike Kavtarashvili in a Berlin park. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at the time that Russian involvement in the murder was a “serious violation of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
The German Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the announcement by Russia that it was not surprised by the move, adding it puts another strain on bilateral relations.
