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Europe

Germany expels 2 Russian diplomats after killing islamic terrorist

2019-12-05

[NBCNews] "Tornike K." was making his way to a ~~terror hq~~ mosque when he was shot twice in the head in Berlin's Tiergarten park shortly before midday Aug. 23, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.

There were "enough indications" that the killing was "either contracted by government offices of the Russian Federation or the autonomous Chechen republic as a part of the Russian Federation," spokesman Markus Schmitt said.

Prosecutors said Tornike K., who had previously fought alongside jihad anti-Moscow separatists in Chechnya, "was classified and sought by Russian authorities as a terrorist."

The Kremlin had accused the 40-year-old of being a member of a terror organisation called "Caucasian Emirate."
The Boston bombers were members, so thank you, Vadim.

The Tsarnaev boys? The Caucasian Emirate was first nominally attached to Al Qaeda, then to ISIS, when they called themselves Caucasus Province, but all the while the Russians were hunting them down. Those who made their way to the Syrian civil war via Turkey became known as good fighters, but their organizations frequently splintered, a good way to get killed. It looks like Russia is still hunting them.

Police said they arrested Vadim K., a 48-year-old Russian national, shortly after the murder. Prosecutors say facial recognition technology was used to track and identify him.

Deutsche Welle adds:

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was an asylum-seeker of Chechen descent from Georgia who fought against the Russians as a separatist during the Second Chechen War from 1999 - 2009. He was also known by a second identity "Tornike K." which was the one used by German prosecutors. After the war, he reportedly worked in both Ukraine and Georgia against Russian interests.

He applied for asylum in Germany in 2016 following multiple attempts on his life in Georgia. His asylum application, however, was denied and he was slated for deportation. Khangoshvili's ex-wife, Manana Tsatieva, previously told DW: "We were warned that this would happen eventually."

A senior Russian lawmaker, Leonid Slutsky, said on Wednesday Germany should expect to have two of its diplomats expelled from Russia as a "symmetrical" measure.

However, as Mark Galeotti, a British historian and expert on Russian intelligence, pointed out in an interview with DW, "It personally suits the Russians that they are thought to be behind this."

"Part of the Russian calculus is to present themselves as being so unpredictable and dangerous that the West really needs to make a deal with Moscow," such as over Ukraine, Galeotti added.

Posted by:Woodrow

#8 no discernible benefit to anyone.

Seems to be where the previous administration went to get their money laundered.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-12-05 11:24

#7 * Kievan Rus (gryaznyi Auto-correct)

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-05 09:18

#6 We have zero national interest in the shithole that is Ukraine any more than Russia has any national interest in the shithole that is Cuba. We should stay out of their backyard and v-v. (Note that the analogy breaks down when you consider that Kieran Rus was / is the cradle of Russian Orthodox Christianity. Maybe Boston, not Cuba, would be a better analogue.)

We gave zero national interest in Podgorica (Q: Where? What? A: Exactly).

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-05 09:17

#5 I'm not arguing that it was and that it wasn't. I'm saying that Russians thought. For that matter, as an Israeli during the Kosovo war, I was pretty happy about Dimona mushrooms.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-05 09:11

#4 The American intervention in Kosovo was because the Euros (who told Bush they'd handle it) had bungled it so badly, that the facade of NATO was about to collapse and Deep State couldn't allow that.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-05 08:49

#3 I don't disagree with anything you said Lex, except.
(a) Far as Russians are concerned, Ukraine is not their backyard. Ukraine IS Russia.
(b) To some Russians, Kosovo was a rehearsal for attack on Russia.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-05 08:14

#2 "Part of the Russian calculus is to present themselves as being so unpredictable and dangerous that the West really needs to make a deal with Moscow," such as over Ukraine, Galeotti added.

Ok, so the Russians are "unpredictable."
Two Q's:
1) Is the behavior of America's current POTUS "predictable"?
2) Has US policy toward Ukraine since the end of the Cold War been predictable, rational, sober, honest?

Re #2, consider that history. In 1991 our president told the Russian president, and soon thereafter harshly warned the new government of independent Ukraine, that Ukraine should not join NATO and should not pursue an independent foreign policy so as to avoid creating fears in Moscow of anti-Russian encirclement by the West and its proxies.

Then NATO was expanded to include not just Poland but also the Baltics and Romania. Hmmm. Didn't we tell the Russians otherwise?

Then US officials, most notoriously Victoria Nuland, openly involved themselves in Ukrainian political disputes, siding with a government and a movement which, however appealing to Western sympathies, was defined in part by its hostility to Russia.

At least the Soviets' behavior toward the anti-American new Cuban regime in 1960-61 wasn't "unpredictable."

Maybe it's time we looked in the mirror and set about creating an orderly, stable, consistent and intelligent policy toward Ukraine that does not threaten Russia in its back yard for no discernible benefit to anyone.

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-05 07:59

If anyone out there in Teevee land knows the identity of these two young Chechen frequent fliers, please call the Boston office.....

Posted by: Besoeker 2019-12-05 02:49

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