The Berlin Court of Appeals today sentenced 56-year-old Vadim Krazikov to life in prison for the 2019 murder of Zelimhan Kangosvili, a Georgian from Chechnya, in Tiergarten Park in central Berlin. The court has no doubt that the murder was committed on behalf of the Russian secret service FSB. “He received a government order to kill,” the German prosecutor said, referring to political motives and a “state order to assassinate on German soil.”
At noon on August 23, 2019, 40-year-old Kangosvili, who had served as a rank-and-file in the Second Chechen War and used the pseudonym Tornike Kaftarashvili, was walking in Tiergartren Park in a crowded and crowded a cyclist, who shot him two more times while he was already on the ground. Kangosvili died on the spot and Krazhikov was arrested shortly afterwards by German authorities, claiming that his name was Vadim Sokolov, a civil engineer with no connection to the Russian state, a claim he defended to the end.
The victim had sought asylum in Germany in 2016, as he was classified as a “target of high importance” for Russian services, which considered him a terrorist and accused him of membership in the “Emirate of the Caucasus”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself had described Kangasvili as a “robber” and a “murderer.”
The assassination attempt raised tensions between Berlin and Moscow from the outset, with the German prosecutor’s first statement referring to political motives and the perpetrator’s relationship with the Russian secret services, asking for Russia’s assistance in the investigation. During this process, two diplomats serving at the Russian embassy in Berlin were deported by the German Foreign Ministry.
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