Terrorist murdered in Berlin was among organizers of Moscow subway blast - Putin

RFE/RL
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 01:01 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) arrives for peace talks in Paris on December 9 with the leaders of France, Germany, and Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the ethnic Chechen Georgian national killed in Berlin this summer was behind a Moscow subway blast.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris on December 9 following peace talks with the leaders of Ukraine, France, and Germany, Putin described Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as "a hardened and murderous fighter" wanted in Russia.

Putin said Khangoshvili "killed 98 people in one of his acts" and that he was also "one of the organizers of a Moscow metro blast." He gave no further details. Moscow's subway has experienced several deadly explosions over the past 20 years.

Khangoshvili, 40, who had previously fought alongside separatists in Russia's Chechnya region, was shot twice in the head in Kleiner Tiergarten park on August 23.

A Russian national suspected of carrying out the killing was arrested shortly afterward. German media have reported that the Federal Prosecutor's Office suspects Russian state agencies of having commissioned the killing.

Comment: Meanwhile a number German MPs have questioned these baseless allegations and Germany's official departments are still unable to provide any evidence.

Putin denied any Russian state participation in the slaying and said Russia was ready to assist Germany investigate the killing.

"I don't know what happened to him. [He lives in] a criminal underworld and anything could have happened," Putin said in response to a question from a German reporter.

"We need to find the guilty ones and along with the Chancellor [Angela Merkel] do everything to help our German colleagues," he said, while denying there was a "crisis" between the countries.

Germany last week expelled two Russian diplomats after prosecutors blamed Russian authorities for not "sufficiently" participating in the investigation of the murder.

When asked how the Kremlin would react, Putin said Russia would follow the "unwritten law" in diplomacy of tit-for-tat.

Comment: More from RT:

Asked about it after the 'Normandy Four' meeting in Paris on Monday, Putin said that to call the man a "Georgian" is not quite right, as he is not an ethnic Georgian and had in fact fought for the Chechen militants in the Caucasus.

"He was a militant, a very rough and bloodstained man," Putin told reporters, noting that he was wanted for an attack that killed 98 people, and was one of the masterminds of the 2004 Moscow metro bombings.

Putin's remarks align with the reporting of US government outlet RFE/RL, which said that Khangoshvili had led a "few dozen fighters" in Chechnya and fought alongside Shamil Basayev - the notorious terrorist leader responsible for the 2002 hostage taking in Moscow's Dubrovka Theater, the 2004 Beslan school massacre, as well as a series of suicide bombings across Russia.

The Russian president said his government will cooperate with the German police as they investigate the killing. He noted, however, that Russia had asked Germany "more than once" to arrest and extradite the "bandit and murderer" Khangoshvili, as he was wanted for terrorism, but the German authorities refused.

"It would be good to cooperate in other circumstances, not just in time of tragedy," Putin said.

See also:

• Germany will respond if US sanctions Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia - Bundestag member
• Germany expels two Russian diplomats over Berlin murder probe - "unjustified" says Moscow