Berlin police continue the investigation into the case of murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen Georgian national, which took place in the center of Berlin. German and international media report that Khangoshvili was allegedly the victim of contract killing. The authors of a joint investigation by project Bellingcat, German news magazine Der Spiegel and Russian Insider claim that the Khangoshvili’s murder is linked with the Russian state.

On this issue, we spoke with Christo Grozev, a Bellingcat project investigator, who heads the investigation into cases related to Russian security services.

According to him, the fact that it is impossible to find the record of a murder suspect in any Russian database, who has been detained and whose passport was issued in full compliance with Russian law, raises suspicion that Khangoshvili’s murder is related or permitted by the Russian state.

Christo Grozev suggests that because of the past of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, he may have been the target of the Russian Federal Security Service. At the same time, the investigative journalist does not exclude the possibility that it was the personal vendetta by Chechnya’s commander Ramzan Kadyrov. “But this was, of course,  committed with the consent and participation of the Russian state” – he added.

According to Christo Grozev, if it is revealed that the Russian state is involved in the murder, the case will be automatically transferred to the German national security services.