According to AP News, two Russian diplomats were recently forced to leave Germany after a German court concluded that the death of a Chechen man in Berlin two years prior was a state-ordered act. In 2019, 40-year-old Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili was killed in broad daylight in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten Park. The Guardian reported that a suspect, Vadim Krasikov, was apprehended after witnesses saw him disposing of a bicycle and a handgun in the River Spree. Krasikov was convicted for Khangoshvili’s murder, but told authorities that he was merely acting on orders given to him by the Russian government. The judge assigned to the case called the murder “state terrorism,” stating, “The central government of the Russian Federation was the author of this crime.”

Krasikov allegedly shot the victim repeatedly at close range with a silencer-equipped handgun, AP News reported. The regional German court found evidence that Krasikov had been employed by a Russian intelligence agency, and that he had received a false passport with the alias Vadim Sokolov prior to the murder.

In statements reported by CNN, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the murder “constitutes a severe breach of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany.” Baerbock also informed Russia that two of its diplomatic personnel would be declared persona non grata. Both of the diplomatic personnel were thought to be working with a Russian intelligence agency.

“Berlin’s unfriendly actions will not remain without adequate response,” Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said. “A statement on this matter will be made in the near future.”

According to Politico, the court stated that Khangoshvili was a target “because of his negative attitudes toward the Russian central state and his role in the Second Chechen War.” Khangoshvili was reportedly responsible for a strategic attack on a Russian police station in 2004, where both civilians and police officers died. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Khangoshvili a “terrorist and murder,” AP News said. The news site reported that Russian law allows for the murder of terrorists (both domestically and abroad) as long as the act is authorized by the Russian president. But however legal the killing may be under Russian law, the breach of sovereignty has only further fanned the flames of Russian-German relations, which are already on the hot seat thanks to discussions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The Nord Stream pipeline is theoretically supposed to provide a direct oil pipeline from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine in the process, and therefore increasing European access to oil. However, the project has been halted because of E.U. concerns over Russia’s presence on the Ukrainian border, especially given Russia’s capacity to quickly use the pipeline as a weapon against Ukraine. While halting measures on the pipeline demonstrates solidarity with Ukraine, the expulsion of Russian diplomats (regardless of their connections to intelligence agencies) isolates the Russian government by limiting its options for non-combative solutions.

Furthermore, the court decision also comes right after German chancellor Olaf Scholz has taken office. These tensions could set a very negative precedent for Russian relations during his term.