Putin ‘carries responsibility’ for murder of leading critic

THE KREMLIN was accused last night of whitewashing an inquiry into the murder of a leading opposition figure, after publicly ruling out his criticisms of President Vladimir Putin as a potential motive.

Boris Nemtsov was shot dead a short walk from the Kremlin on Friday night, hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin’s “mad, aggressive” policies.

A former deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin in the late 1990s, Nemtsov was well known internationally, and his death has provoked a worldwide outpouring of sympathy and anger.

Putin said yesterday that he would personally oversee the investigation into what he called a “brutal murder” that “bore all the hallmarks of a contract killing“.

But the pledge drew anger from opposition politicians, who believe that the death of one of the Kremlin’s few remaining critics may well have had state involvement.

In an early statement on the progress of the inquiry, the Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s top investigative body, said it was examining whether it could have been “Islamist fundamentalists” or extremist elements involved in the war in Ukraine.

Friends and allies of Nemtsov claimed that that ignored the most likely theory: that Nemtsov was murdered for his vociferous attacks on Putin.

“Boris Nemtsov was a stark opposition leader who criticised the most important state officials in our country, including President Vladimir Putin,” said Ilya Yashin, an opposition activist, who last spoke to Nemtsov two days before the killing. “As we have seen, such criticism in Russia is dangerous for one’s life.”

Mikhail Kasyanov, an opposition leader and a former prime minister under Putin, added: “That a leader of the opposition could be shot beside the walls of the Kremlin is beyond imagination. There can be only one version: that he was shot for telling the truth.”

Nemtsov, 55, is understood to have met his girlfriend, Anna Duritskaya, a 23-year-old Ukrainian model, for dinner before walking in the direction of his home, south of the Moskva River.

As the couple crossed the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, a light-coloured car approached and an assassin opened fire from inside.

Investigators said that at least seven shots were fired and four of the bullets struck Nemtsov in the back. One of them entered his heart. Duritskaya was not injured. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, said it was likely to increase tensions in Russia, where Putin has ridden a wave of nationalist support following his handling of the Ukraine crisis.

“The murder of Boris Nemtsov is an attempt to complicate the situation, maybe even to destabilise the situation in the country,” Gorbachev said.

Investigators later said they had identified the weapon as a 9mm Makarov pistol and that they had found six empty cartridges from different manufacturers at the scene.

An outspoken critic of Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule of Russia, and one of the leaders of the anti-Kremlin protest movement in 2011-2012, Nemtsov last year wrote a damning report on corruption during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Fears about his personal safety had been on his mind in recent months. In an interview with the Sobesdnik.ru website three weeks ago, Nemtsov said he was worried he could be assassinated.

“Vladimir Putin carries direct political responsibility for this murder,” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an opposition politician and a friend of Nemtsov’s for more than 20 years.

Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, said Nemtsov had been killed because he was planning to disclose evidence of Russia’s involvement in the war in east Ukraine. — © The Sunday Telegraph

As we have seen, such criticism in Russia is dangerous