- The body of a Russian diplomat was found on the sidewalk outside the country’s embassy in Berlin.
- The man had apparently fallen to death.
- The Russian Embassy described the incident as tragic.
A Russian diplomat was found dead outside the country’s embassy in Berlin in October, and the news appeared on Friday.
According to a report by Der Spiegel, which first reported the case, the man was found by the police on the sidewalk on October 19, apparently falling from the embassy building to his death.
A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said the case was “known to the ministry” but would not provide more details.
After confirming the death, the Russian Embassy called it a “tragic accident.”
The embassy said in a statement: “All procedures related to the repatriation of the remains of diplomats to the country shall be resolved promptly with the responsible German law enforcement and medical authorities in accordance with current practices.”
However, the Russian delegation stated that it “considered that speculations about the diplomat’s death that appeared in some Western media are completely incorrect.”
The diplomat was confirmed by Spiegel as a 35-year-old second-class secretary of the embassy.
But the magazine said that German authorities believed that he was also an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service.
According to reports, he was also related to a senior official of the FSB Second Bureau-the Western Secret Service claimed that the department was involved in the 2019 murder of a Georgian national in central Berlin.
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian, was shot twice in the head at close range in Kleiner Tiergarten Park on August 23, 2019. He was allegedly a Russian man who was arrested shortly afterwards.
The Russian suspect, 55-year-old Vadim Krasikov, also known as Vadim Sokolov, is being tried in the murder case, which the German prosecutor said was ordered by Moscow.
