Russia sends two German diplomats out

The Russian Foreign Ministry declared two German diplomats persona non grata in a mirror response to Berlin's decision to oust two Russian diplomats.

Representatives for the Foreign Ministry pointed out that Russia expressed a decisive protest to Germany's Ambassador to Moscow, Geza Andreas von Gaire, in connection with the unfriendly decision of the German government to declare two employees of the Russian embassy in Berlin persona non grata. The German diplomats will thus be expelled from Russia in a retaliatory move.

Moscow will continue showing mirror responses to any unfriendly steps that Berlin might take against Russia in the future. Russian officials have rejected accusations of the involvement of Russian state bodies in the murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. Such accusations are divorced from reality, representatives for the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

On December 15, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that Germany was declaring two Russian diplomats persona non grata. This decision was connected with the conviction of Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov (Krasikov) in the case of the murder of Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019. The victim used to be a guerrilla leader, who had fought against Russia on the side of Shamil Basayev's terrorists during the second Chechen war.