BERLIN (BLOOMBERG) - Germany expelled two Russian diplomats over an execution-style killing in a Berlin public park in 2019 by a man with ties to Russian intelligence.

       "This state-sponsored murder, as determined by today's court decision, represents a grave violation of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday (Dec 15).

       Russia's ambassador was summoned and told the personnel had been declared personae non gratae.

       A Berlin court earlier convicted Vadim Krasikov, a 56-year-old with links to Russia's FSB intelligence service, of the August 2019 killing and sentenced him to life in prison.

       The ruling explicitly said the assailant was acting on Russian state orders, and the court's chief judge called the murder in the capital's Kleiner Tiergarten park "state terrorism."

       The verdict comes at a moment of already mounting tension with the Kremlin and could put pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take a harder line.

       The new German leader on Wednesday called for a united European "Ostpolitik" to seek dialogue with Moscow, even as the Kremlin amasses more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine.

       Baerbock, a Green party member who has taken a harder line on Moscow and opposes the Nord Stream 2 gas link between Germany and Russia, said she spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday and asked for an "open and honest" dialogue.

       "It's very clear that actions like the Tiergarten murder places a heavy burden on this exchange," she said.

       The decision by the eight-day-old German government follows the expulsion of two Russian diplomats in December 2019 in response to Russia's lack of assistance in the investigation into the extra-judicial killing in broad daylight.

       Russia followed suit by expelling two Germans and again vowed retailiation. "Berlin's unfriendly actions won't be left without an adequate response," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel, adding that a statement would be issued shortly.

       The dark episode between Berlin and Moscow adds a new burden for Germany, which has baulked at more hawkish positions of its U.S. and European allies.

       The country has sought to keep a channel open to Russian President Vladimir Putin, even in the face of his seizure of Crimea, the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition-leader Alexey Navalny and mounting charges of Kremlin-sponsored cyber attacks.

       The US and European Union are weighing a response to aggressive action against Ukraine as Russia deploys military hardware near the border.

       Scholz reiterated in the Bundestag - not far from the site of the murder - that any violation of Ukraine's borders will carry a heavy price for the Kremlin.

       The brazen nature of the murder only added to tensions. Krasikov, who was carrying a Russian passport with a fake identity, gunned down Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former militia leader who had been branded a terrorist by Putin's government.

       The court said the extra-judicial killing was an act of revenge.

       The victim was shot at close range with a Glock 26 pistol that was equipped with a silencer.

       The assailant dispensed with the weapon, along with the e-bike he fled on, in the nearby Spree river, according to the indictment.

       He was arrested soon after and has been in custody ever since. Federal prosecutors charged him in June 2020.

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