A Berlin court has sentenced a Russian man to life in prison for killing a Chechen man in Germany's capital two years ago and alleges the accused acted at the behest of Russian authorities. 

The Berlin regional court said on Wednesday that Russian security services provided 56-year-old Vadim Krasikov with a false identity, fake passport and the resources to carry out the killing in 2019.

The Kremlin has called the allegations of Russian involvement in the Berlin killing "absolutely groundless."

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The 2019 slaying of Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili, 40, a Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, sparked outrage in Germany and inflamed diplomatic tensions between Russia and Germany. 

It prompted the German government to expel two Russian diplomats — and a reciprocal response by Moscow.

Defense lawyers had asked the court to acquit their client, who claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.

Judges said Krasikov bore "particularly grave responsibility" for the slaying, meaning he will not be entitled to the customary automatic parole after 15 years.

The outcome of the trial could stoke fresh tensions between Germany and Russia at a time when the new government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to find its foreign policy footing with Moscow.

The victim's relatives, who under German law were allowed to take part in the trial as co-plaintiffs, accused Russia last week of trying to "send a message" to its political enemies by killing Khangoshvili, who had claimed asylum in Germany three years earlier.

Prosecutors alleged that Krasikov traveled to Berlin under the alias Vadim Sokolov in August 2019 at the behest of the Russian government for a "state-contracted killing," shooting the victim from behind with a silencer-fitted handgun near the Kleiner Tiergarten park.

Witnesses saw the suspect throw a bike, a gun and a wig in the Spree River near the scene and alerted police, who quickly arrested him before he could make off on an electric scooter parked in a doorway.

Putin said after a meeting with former Chancellor Angela Merkel months after the slaying that Khangoshvili, the victim, had been a "bandit" and a "murderer."