Germany Says Russian Officials Ordered Berlin Park Killing

(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s top prosecutor said Russian officials ordered the killing of a political opponent in a Berlin city park last summer, escalating tensions between the two countries.

“State entities within the central government of the Russian Federation gave the order to the accused to liquidate” the murder victim, an ethnic Chechen Georgian citizen identified as Tornike K., Germany’s Federal Prosecutor said in a statement filing charges against a Russian citizen.

The case lies at the heart of fresh turmoil between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Merkel confronted Putin over the Aug. 23 murder at a summit meeting last December. Putin responded that the victim, who had several aliases and fought against the Russian army in Chechnya, was “a militant, and a very tough and bloody man.”

Putin denied Russian involvement and pledged to collaborate with German investigators. But the assistance hasn’t been forthcoming, German officials have said. The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to the new charges on Thursday.

Grave Accusations

Merkel’s government, which expelled two Russian embassy staff last year in connection with the killing, said the prosecutor’s report contains “grave accusations” and that it reserves the right to take further action. “The German government takes this very seriously,” a government spokesman said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the Russian ambassador was invited to talks for the second time in four weeks. The government summoned the envoy on May 28 over suspected Kremlin involvement in a 2015 cyber attack against parliament. Germany is seeking to have sanctions imposed through the European Union.

The case evokes memories of the poisoning of a former spy in western England in 2018 using a weapons-grade nerve agent. The U.K. government and its allies blamed Russian military intelligence while Moscow denied responsibility.

The August killing took place in broad daylight in Kleiner Tiergarten park in the heart of the German capital, a half hour walk from Merkel’s office. The victim, who had been in Germany since 2016 as an asylum seeker, was gunned down by the assailant, who approached him from behind on a bicycle in a public park, with a Glock 26 pistol equipped with a silencer, the prosecutor said.

Tornike K. led a Chechen militia against Russian forces during the Second Chechen War in 2000 and 2004 -- and worked as operative for the Georgian government to lead a volunteer unit in the breakaway region of South Ossetia during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.

The suspected murderer, a Russian, was identified by prosecutors as “Vadim K., alias Vadim S.”

“Either he hoped for financial remuneration or shared the motives of his contractor to kill a political opponent and take revenge for his participation in earlier conflicts with Russia,” the prosecutor said. Russian authorities identified Tornike K. as a “terrorist.”

The Russian was apprehended soon after and has refused to talk to investigators. The prosecutor says he flew to Paris from Moscow on Aug. 17, before proceeding to Warsaw. He made his way to Berlin soon after.

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