Russia expels 2 German diplomats in quid pro quo move

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has ordered two German diplomats to leave in response to the expulsion of two Russian envoys after a German court’s ruling that blamed Moscow for the killing of a Chechen man in Berlin two years ago. Moscow has angrily rejected the Berlin court’s verdict and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador Monday to inform him about the diplomats’ expulsion in what it said was a “symmetrical response to the unfriendly decision by the German government.” Judges at Berlin’s regional court on Wednesday convicted 56-year-old Vadim Krasikov of killing Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity. They ruled that Krasikov had acted on the orders of Russian authorities.