On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador and informed him of the decision to expel two German diplomats, in response to a similar step taken by Berlin on the fourth of this month, against the background of an assassination targeting a former Chechen fighters.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said - in a statement - that it proceeded in its decision from the principle of reciprocity, and the statement added that Moscow gave the two German employees a week to leave the country.
In a related context, the German embassy in Moscow sent a memo to the Russian side over this decision.
Berlin had expelled two employees of the Russian embassy in the beginning of this month, on the grounds of accusing Moscow of being involved in the assassination of Chechen-Georgian citizen Salim Khan Khango Schwili in Berlin.
The assassination took place on August 23, when the victim was hiking in a public park, and German police quickly arrested the suspect.
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the murdered Georgian citizen in Berlin, and accused him of killing 98 people in one attack in Russia during the war in Chechnya, and accused him of planning attacks against the Moscow subway.
Putin said his country had repeatedly asked Germany to hand him over, but the German government denied knowledge of any requests in this regard. In the past, there have been accusations by Moscow of liquidating many former Chechen fighters outside Russia.