Video of murdered Putin critic gives rise to conflicting reports
Earlier he said Russian leader’s Ukraine policy was ‘mad, aggressive’
THE INVESTIGATION into the killing of Boris Nemtsov, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was gunned down not far from the Kremlin, faced conflicting reports yesterday about possible surveillance footage of his slaying.
No suspects had been arrested since Nemtsov was shot dead on a Moscow bridge on Friday night, a slaying that came just hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin’s “mad, aggressive policy” in Ukraine. According to Russian investigators, Nemtsov was walking near the Kremlin on his way home with a woman when he was shot four times by an assailant, who escaped in a light-coloured car.
It was not clear what CCTV footage may have captured his slaying, even though the area is one of the most highly secure parts of the Russian capital.
The business daily newspaper Kommersant quoted anonymous sources in the Interior Ministry as saying there was no CCTV footage of his murder because the cameras in question were not working at the time of the incident.
Yelena Novikova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s information technology department, which oversees surveillance cameras in the city, said yesterday that all cameras “belonging to the city” were operating correctly on the night of Nemtsov’s death. She said federal authorities also had surveillance cameras near the Kremlin that are not under her organisation’s control.
The failure to dig up CCTV footage in such a public place as central Moscow has deepened the frustration of those who supported Nemtsov, many of whom believe the government is responsible for his killing.
Investigators are looking into several possible motives and have offered 3 million roubles (R585 600) for information about the slaying. So far there have been few leads.
Yesterday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Nemtsov’s killing an “assassination that was revolting” and called for a serious investigation into the crime. He said Nemtsov’s killing “raises a series of questions”. He insisted on a thorough investigation but would not comment on whether he thought Russian authorities’ efforts would be sufficient.
Meanwhile, TV Center, a station controlled by the Moscow city government, broadcast a poor-resolution video from one of its web cameras that it said shows Nemtsov and his date shortly before the killing.
The station, which superimposed its own time code on the footage, circled figures who it said were Nemtsov and the woman walking across the bridge on a rainy night. A vehicle that TVC identified as a snow plough moved slowly behind the couple, obscuring the view of the shooting.