A German court yesterday put a Russian man on trial over the assassination of a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park, allegedly on Moscow’s orders, a case that risks worsening acrimonious ties between Germany and Russia.
Vadim K, also known as Vadim S, stands accused of gunning down a Georgian national, identified by German authorities as 40-year-old Tornike K, in Kleiner Tiergarten Park on Aug. 23 last year.
The 55-year-old accused has so far stayed mum over the case, but German prosecutors, who do not release the full names of suspects, have alleged that Russia ordered the killing.
Photo: Reuters
The brazen murder in the heart of Berlin appeared to be a tipping point for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in May said that the killing “disrupts a cooperation of trust” between Berlin and Moscow.
Given the high stakes, the trial is likely to be closely scrutinized for details pointing to Moscow’s alleged involvement.
Investigative Web site Bellingcat named the suspect as Vadim Krasikov, who grew up in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union before moving to the Russian region of Siberia.
He received training from Russian intelligence service the FSB and was part of its elite squad, the Web site said.
Days before the killing, he had posed as a tourist, visiting sights in Paris, before traveling to Warsaw, Der Spiegel reported.
He also toured the Polish capital before vanishing on Aug. 22, without checking out from his hotel, the report said.
A day later, riding a bicycle in Kleiner Tiergarten Park, the suspect approached the victim from behind, firing a Glock 26 pistol equipped with a silencer, German prosecutors said.
After the victim fell to the ground, the accused fired another two shots at his head that killed the Georgian, they said.
Investigators later found his phone and a return flight ticket for Moscow on Aug. 25 in his hotel room in Warsaw, Der Spiegel reported.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS