BERLIN. Dec 4 (Interfax) - The Russian citizen suspected of killing a Georgian citizen in Berlin was going under different names and received a visa issued by France as an engineer working for the company ZAO RUST, the Office of the German Prosecutor General said in a statement on Wednesday.
"For his entry, he used a Schengen visa issued by the French authorities in the name of Vadim S. Attached to the visa application was a so-called confirmation from the employer. It indicated the company ZAO RUST with an office in St. Petersburg, and was signed by the general director and accountant. According to the application, the accused worked as a construction engineer and received a monthly salary of 80,000 rubles (an equivalent of around 1,100 euros) from November 20, 2017," the statement said.
According to the German prosecutors, ZAO RUST has been "in reorganization" since April 10, 2019, and it had only one employee on its roster in 2018.
"One of the fax numbers indicated as assigned to ZAO RUST was also assigned to the companies Oboronenergosbyt and Oboronenergo, both affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry," the statement said.
Apart from this, in comparing the documents and police search databases, German detectives concluded that it was highly likely that Vadim S., whom German media identified as Vadim Sokolov, held identity documents in the name of Vadim K. (the prosecutors did not reveal his full name due to legislative restrictions on the publication of personal data).
Vadim K. was declared wanted in Russia on April 23, 2014, and his name was removed from the wanted list on July 7, 2015. The man was wanted on suspicion of a murder committed in Moscow on June 19, 2013, the German prosecutor's office said.
The documents in the name of Vadim S. appeared for the first time on September 3, 2015, when a Russian internal passport was issued in this name, the German prosecutor's office said.
The suspect arrived in Paris on August 17, 2019, supposedly to represent ZAO RUST at an exhibition. He then traveled from Paris to Warsaw, where he had booked a hotel room until August 26. However, he left Warsaw on August 22, and the murder was committed in Berlin at about 11:55 a.m. on August 23.
The German prosecutor's office identified the victim as Tornike K. Russian authorities consider him to be a terrorist belonging to the group known as Caucasus Emirate.
"He is believed to have been an active member of this group, underwent training in Georgian territory, and was responsible for illegal travel of group members," the German prosecutor's office said.
During the second Chechen war in 2000-2004, the man led militias in Chechnya fighting against Russian forces, the statement said.
German prosecutors have no evidence indicating that the murder could have been committed on behalf of non-state actors or bodies, nor have they revealed any evidence of any connection between the accused and the victim or evidence indicating that the accused could have had any personal motives, it said.