Doubts that slaying will be enough to invigorate beleaguered opposition
For the tens of thousands bearing flowers and tying black ribbons to railings in honour of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the solemn march through the Moscow drizzle was a time for silence, not slogans.
The marchers occasionally chanted ‘‘Russia without Putin’’ or ‘‘Say no to war’’ but often the only sound was the steady thwack of police helicopters overhead or the hum of police boats patrolling the Moscow River shorelines.
While the killing of Nemtsov has shaken the Russian opposition, which sees the Kremlin as responsible, it is unclear whether his death will be enough to invigorate the beleaguered movement. Despite the Ukraine conflict and Russia’s economic crisis, support for President Vladimir Putin has been above 80 per cent in the past year.
Since mass anti-Putin protests brought hundreds of thousands to the streets of Moscow in 2011 and 2012, Putin has
People hold flags and posters during a march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow. marginalised and intimidated his political opponents, jailing some, driving others into exile, and ramping up fines and potential jail time for those detained at protests.
Nemtsov, 55, was among the few prominent opposition figures who refused to be cowed. But, while many marchers expressed respect for his long political career and grief at his loss, few believed that his death would spark significant change in Russia because of the Kremlin’s control over national television, where most Russians get their news.
‘‘Maybe if 100 people were to die, people would rise up, but I don’t really believe in that,’’ Sergei Musakov, 22, said. ‘‘People are so under the influence of the box that they will believe anything that television tells them. If it tells them that terrorists from the Islamic State group came to Russia in order to blow up the fifth column, they’ll believe it.’’
The Kremlin had identified Nemtsov
Indian actress Freida Pinto poses for a photo before the Salvatore Ferragamo Autumn/Winter 2015/16 collection during Milan Fashion week. as among the leaders of a ‘‘fifth column’’, painting him and other opposition figures as traitors in the service of a hostile West.
About 30,000 people attended the march, making it the largest opposition rally in more than a year. At the site where Nemtsov was killed, a pile of flowers grew by the minute, as mourners tossed down bouquets of every colour.
He was shot on a bridge near the Kremlin, just hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin’s ‘‘mad, aggressive policy’’ in Ukraine. At the time of his death, Nemtsov was working on a report that he believed proved Russian troops were fighting alongside separatists in Ukraine, despite the official denials.
Investigators said they were looking into several possible motives and had offered 3 million rubles (NZ$65,000) for information about the shooting. No-one has been arrested.
TV Centre, a station controlled by the
High style:
Moscow city government, broadcast a poor-resolution video from one of its web cameras that it said showed Nemtsov and his date – Ukrainian citizen Anna Duritskaya – shortly before the killing.
The station circled figures it said were Nemtsov and Duritskaya walking across the bridge on a rainy night. A snow plough obscured the view of the shooting. TV Centre then circled what it said was the suspect jumping into a car. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.
Fellow opposition activists said they hoped Nemtsov’s death would encourage people to take action, rather than intimidate them.
‘‘Essentially it is an act of terror,’’ said Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader and friend. ‘‘It is a political murder aimed at frightening the population, or the part of the population that supported Nemtsov or did not agree with the government. I hope we won’t get scared, that we will continue what Boris was doing.’’