PARIS. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who was killed in Berlin, was a bloody and cruel militant, who was one of the organizers of the Moscow metro explosions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"You said about the murder of a Georgian. It is not quite right. I know that a man was killed in Berlin. But he was not just a Georgian, he was a man who actively fought on the side of separatists in the Caucasus. He is not just a Georgian by ethnic origins. We had him put on the wanted list," Putin said at a press conference in the wake of the Normandy-format summit in Paris.
"This was a militant, a very bloody and cruel man. In just one attack that he had taken part in 98 people were killed. He was one of the organizers of the Moscow metro blasts," Putin said.
He said that he did not know what happened to the killed man and thinks that it was inappropriate to expel Russian diplomats in response.
"This is a bandit environment, everything can happen there. I believe resting on preliminary considerations that it was inappropriate to expel diplomats who had to relation to this," Putin said.