PARIS, Germany (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Moscow was ready to help Germany in the investigation over the murder of a Georgian man in Berlin which has rekindled diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

“We need to find the guilty ones and along with the Chancellor (Angela Merkel) do everything to help our German colleagues,” he told reporters in Paris, while denying it was a “crisis” between the countries.

Germany last week expelled two Russian diplomats after prosecutors said Moscow could be behind the killing of the former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian national, was shot twice in the head at close range in Kleiner Tiergarten park on 23 August, allegedly by a Russian man who was arrested shortly afterwards.

Putin described Khangoshvili as a “fighter, very cruel and bloody” who had taken part in separatist activities and also been involved in blasts on the Moscow metro.