(CNN) Germany moved to expel two Russian diplomats on Wednesday, after prosecutors said they had grounds to believe there was Russian state involvement in the killing of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin this summer. A suspect, who was carrying a Russian passport, was arrested within hours, but the Kremlin subsequently rejected any connection between the killing and the Russian state. Germany's Foreign Office on Wednesday said it had declared two employees of the Russian Embassy in Berlin as personae non gratae, effectively expelling them. The declaration was described as taking immediate effect. "With this step, the German government is responding to the fact that, despite repeated high-level and strong calls, the Russian authorities did not participate sufficiently in the investigation of the murder," the statement read.

Source: CNN December 04, 2019 13:07 UTC