‘No evidence of govt involvement’ in Berlin incident, Russian Embassy says after diplomats expelled

The Russian ambassador in Berlin said on Wednesday there has been no evidence of government involvement in the August incident in Berlin in which a Georgian citizen was allegedly killed by a Russian citizen. Earlier in the day, the German Foreign Ministry declared as personae non gratae two staffers of the Russian Embassy.

“We are deeply disappointed by the approach of the German side,” Ambassador Sergey Nechayev said. “We consider this step as groundless and unfriendly. There was no evidence of Russian government involvement in this incident.”

“This is an unmotivated politicization of the crime, the investigation of which is far from being complete, as well as a clear attempt to anticipate the results of this investigation,” according to the envoy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in London on Wednesday that Germany has made a decision to expel Russian diplomats “because it had received no assistance from Moscow in investigating the crime,” TASS reported.