Russia Ordered Assassination of Chechen Rebel in Berlin Park, German Court Says

A court in Berlin has found that the 2019 broad daylight murder of a Georgian asylum seeker was the work of the Russian intelligence services, and sentenced the gunman to life in prison without parole. 

A judge ruled that the man, identified as Vadim N. Krasikov, had shot 40-year-old Georgian national and one-time Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Khangoshvili three times in a Berlin park with the assistance and at the behest of the Russian government. 

“The act was meticulously prepared by aides stationed in Berlin,” the head judge, Olaf Arnoldi, said while reading the verdict and sentence in the Berlin courtroom.

Prosecutors said that Krasikov – a 55-year-old Russian national formerly employed as a Russian intelligence officer – travelled to Berlin under the alias Vadim Solokov in August 2019 on behalf of the Russian government for a “state-contracted killing.” 

The verdict puts the incoming government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a tough geopolitical position as it looks for diplomatic room to manoeuvre in regards to Russia, said a NATO intelligence official in Brussels.

“Germany has always been ambivalent about direct confrontation with Russia, preferring to hope it can wield soft power through diplomatic arrangements,” said the senior NATO intelligence official, who asked not to be named discussing diplomatic sensibilities. 

“This forces their hand because now the judiciary has directly concluded that the Russian government conducted a terrorist act in a Berlin Zoo,” said the official. “This could begin a process of sanctions and reactions that Scholz might not be able to ignore if he wanted to,” reflecting the widespread opinion by analysts that German thinking about Russian aggression is “opaque.”

“This might give him cover to act or it might limit his ability to avoid acting,” added the source. “So it’s a good moment to find out where Scholz stands on the Russian question.”

The prosecution and judge cited an extensive investigation by German authorities that linked Krasikov, a former member of an elite FSB unit, to Russian officials as he travelled from Moscow to Poland on a government provided fake passport before proceeding to Berlin, where it appears he received assistance from Russian government officials at each step.

Krasikov’s background and itinerary were first reported by the open source investigations unit Bellingcat, which worked with Russian government databases bought on the black market to clearly identify his background and alias.

In the attack, Krasikov shot Khangoshvili three times with a silenced Glock 9mm pistol before attempting to escape by scooter. He was apprehended close to the attack site by police after he threw the weapon in a canal and attempted to wear a disguise to escape the scene.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats after revelations that Krasikov had received help from people tied to the Russian embassy in Berlin.

“In June 2019 at the latest, state organs of the central government of the Russian Federation took the decision to liquidate Khangoshvili in Berlin,” the judge said. “Four children lost their father, two siblings, their brother.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed the claims that it was an assassination with the argument that Khangoshvili was a “bandit” and a “terrorist.”