In accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961, the Federal Foreign Office has declared two members of staff at the Russian Embassy in Berlin to be personae non gratae with immediate effect.

With this step, the Federal Government is responding to the fact that, despite repeated high-level and urgent demands, the Russian authorities have not cooperated sufficiently in the investigations into the murder of Tornike K. at the Tiergarten in Berlin on 23 August 2019.

This expectation was last conveyed to Ambassador Nechajev by State Secretary Michaelis in talks at the Federal Foreign Office on 20 November 2019. In spite of this, the Russian side has, as in the previous months, treated the Federal Government’s calls to support the investigation in a dilatory fashion.

In the Federal Government’s view, credible and immediate cooperation on the part of the Russian authorities remains necessary. This is required all the more urgently given the fact that the Federal Public Prosecutor General has taken over the investigations in this case as there are sufficient grounds to believe that the killing was carried out either on behalf of state authorities of the Russian Federation or of those of the autonomous Chechen Republic as part of the Russian Federation.

The Federal Government reserves the right to take further steps in this matter as the investigations proceed.