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Lawmaker: Impact of ambassador’s murder on relations with Turkey will be clear after probe

First and foremost it is necessary to investigate thoroughly what has happened, the lawmaker stressed

VIENNA, December 19. /TASS/. Possible impacts of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey on bilateral relations will be clear after a thorough investigation into the incident, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

"Now, it is necessary to investigate thoroughly what has happened. It could be a planned terrorist attack plotted by extremists. However, it could be an attack staged by a lone maniac," Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international committee of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, said on Monday at a meeting with Russian compatriots at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Vienna.

"After the probe, it will be possible to see how this tragedy might impact the Russian-Turkish relations," he stressed, adding that Russia have not seen such a tragedy since the assassination of Alexander Griboyedov, a Russian playwright, poet, composer and ambassador to Iran, in 1829.

Earlier in the day, an unidentified attacker shot at Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov as he was addressing the audience at the opening of a Russian photo exhibition in Ankara. The diplomat died of gunshot wounds in hospital.

Three more people also sustained gun wounds during the attack, according to various media reports. Local news outlets reported that the suspected assailant was killed by law enforcers.

A source in the Russian embassy in Turkey told TASS there are no Russian nationals among those wounded.