Foreign Secretary lays roses on bridge where Russian opposition leader was shot and killed

BORIS Johnson has laid a bunch of roses at the spot where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated.

Mr Nemtsov was deputy prime minister of Russia under Boris Yeltsin and a declared admirer of Margaret Thatcher who tried to institute reforms to push Russia towards democracy and free markets.

He was killed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow two years ago.

In a move likely to aggravate his Russian hosts, Mr Johnson added his flowers to a pile of tributes, which are left on the bridge on a daily basis,

Boris Johnson adds to floral tributes at the site where Boris Nemtsov was fatally shot in Moscow.

but cleared away every night.

Earlier, the Foreign Secretary laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin and made a tour of Red Square.

Mr Johnson later met

Mr Nemtsov’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, who urged him to keep pressure on President Vladimir Putin to allow investigators to pursue evidence which might uncover the sponsors of the assassination. “Some people have been arrested, but they are low-level perpetrators, not the organisers,” Mr Prokhorov told the Press Association.

“There are no real steps being taken by the investigators because they are being blocked by Vladimir Putin. We ask Mr Johnson and all leaders of Western countries to always ask Putin and his inner circle ‘Where are the organisers?’ The Kremlin has no answer to these questions.”

Supporters of Mr Nemtsov suspect people linked to the Putin-backing Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov of involvement in the crime, he said. BORIS Johnson and Sergey Lavrov have discussed ongoing preparations to ensure the safety of football fans visiting Russia for next year’s World Cup.

Police from the UK and Russia have already held meetings to put in place plans to protect supporters from terror attacks and also from clashes with opposing sides.

It comes after Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts, who will co-ordinate Britain’s policing operation, warned about the risks of “extreme violence” by Russian fans.

Clashes in France last