Germany deported two Russian embassy employees for thinking that Moscow might be behind the murder of the former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today declared the two employees of the Russian embassy in Berlin to be 'people who are not welcome'. Although we have repeated requests from senior officials, the Russian government has not cooperated." fully in the murder investigation, "the German Foreign Ministry said today.

The Russian foreign ministry denied involvement in the murder, calling the German move "unjustified and unfriendly" and warned of a response to Germany.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, 40, from Georgia, was shot twice in the head at close range in the Kleiner Tiergarten park in Berlin on August 23. Khangoshvili was once part of a separatist faction against Moscow in Russia's Chechnya Autonomous Region. Police arrested a Russian suspect named Vadim S. The witness said he had seen the man threw a bicycle and gun bag into the river.

The German federal prosecutor said on Wednesday that he had taken over the investigation from the Berlin authorities. "There is sufficient evidence that state agencies of the Russian Federation or the autonomous Republic of Chechnya are behind the murder," prosecutors said.

The Bellingcat investigation website said that the murderer had used a fake identity. They said he was actually Vadim Nikolaevich Krasikov, 54, who grew up in Kazakhstan and later lived in Siberia. He was accused of killing a Russian businessman in Moscow in 2013. Russia put Krasnoyov on Interpol's wanted list but later withdrew. German media suspected that Russian intelligence had recruited him.