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Updated at 8.50pm
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN has vowed to punish the killers of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov as Russian opposition figures denounced what they called a “political murder” and Western leaders called for a full probe.
The 55-year-old former deputy premier, a vocal Putin critic prominent at opposition rallies, was shot in the back several times shortly before midnight yesterday as he walked across a bridge a stone’s throw from the Kremlin walls.
The brazen assassination is the latest in a string of murders of opposition figures in Putin’s 15 years in power and recalls the shooting of anti-Kremlin reporter Anna Politkovskaya, gunned down on Putin’s birthday in October 2006.
Putin blamed the assassination on foes trying to discredit the Kremlin, but said in a message to the victim’s mother that “everything will be done so that the organisers and perpetrators of a vile and cynical murder get the punishment they deserve.”
Rally
Allies of Nemtsov, a longtime anti-corruption crusader who served as deputy premier under Boris Yeltsin, linked his death to his political activities.
Hours before the killing, he went on air to urge Russians to join an opposition rally tomorrow against the Kremlin stance in Ukraine.
“There is already a list of unsolved political murders and attack in Russia,” Amnesty International said.
We cannot allow Boris Nemtsov to become just another name on this list.
Streams of mourners, many in tears, filed across the bridge today, heaping flowers and photos of Nemtsov at the spot where he fell.
Russian state television — which in recent years has denied Nemtsov airtime — gave lavish coverage to his murder.
Investigators said gunmen fired at least eight shots from a moving car as Nemtsov walked with a woman who was not injured. Russian television named her as 23-year-old Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya.
‘Propaganda campaign of hatred’
Opposition figures said his death was linked to his outspoken opposition to Putin and in particular his criticism of Russia’s stand on the Ukraine conflict.
They pointed the finger at a climate of hatred whipped up by the Kremlin.
“The political responsibility for this murder lies with the authorities and personally President Putin — those who started and are fighting a war and are running a propaganda campaign of hatred in its support,” former Yabloko liberal party leader Grigory Yavlinsky wrote on Facebook.
“If a few days ago, people were walking round with a placard saying ‘let’s finish off the fifth column’, and today Nemtsov is killed, then let’s think what will happen tomorrow,” said a fellow deputy prime minister under Yeltsin, Anatoly Chubais, referring to a pro-Kremlin rally.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny questioned how Nemtsov could have been killed, saying he would have been under surveillance ahead of Sunday’s planned rally.
“I can’t believe that yesterday night he could have strolled towards the Kremlin without being watched,” he wrote in his blog.
US President Barack Obama condemned a “brutal” and “vicious murder” and urged a probe while British Prime Minister David Cameron said the “callous murder” must be investigated “fully, rapidly and transparently”.
‘Provocation’
Putin suggested the crime was aimed at smearing the authorities.
It “had all the hallmarks of a contract killing and is entirely provocative in nature,” he was quoted as saying by the Kremlin.
The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev also claimed the killing was aimed at “destabilising the situation in the country, at heightening confrontation” with the West.
The powerful Investigative Committee leading the probe said it was looking into a possible “provocation to destabilise the political situation in the country.”
It listed as initial hypotheses a link to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, noting that Nemtsov had received threats after he condemned the killings in Paris, as well as the “situation inside Ukraine”.
Hours before his murder, Nemtsov urged Russians to show up for a rally calling for “an immediate end to the Ukraine war,” he said on popular Echo of Moscow radio, adding that Putin should quit.
Opposition activists scrapped the rally after news of his death while the authorities gave permission for a march in memory of Nemtsov through the city centre tomorrow afternoon.
Opposition leader
After leaving parliament in 2003, he led several opposition parties and groups.
A passionate orator with a rock star image and popular with women, Nemtsov was a key speaker at mass opposition rallies against Putin’s return to the Kremlin in 2012.
He wrote a series of reports critical of corruption and misspending under Putin.
In 2013, he said up to $30 billion of the estimated $50 billion assigned to the Olympic Games that Russia was to host in Sochi had gone missing.
The Kremlin has denied the claims.
- © AFP 2015.
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Amnesty and others should be ashamed of themselves coming out with this kind of gift wrapped propaganda for Russia, theres only one side commiting war crimes and it aint Ukraine
@Buí agus Gorm: The rules of international humanitarian law are there to protect everyone. If you deny one side’s responsibilities you open up the Pandoras box. And a breach of international humanitarian law is not necessarily a war crime. War crimes are reserved for serious breaches. And you are right: the only war crimes that I have seen have come from the Russian side. But Amnesty should not be ashamed for standing up for international law.
@Nicholas McMurry: every rule is being broken by Russia who cares about the Russian pow’s getting a bit of a video taken of them they are getting off lightly.
@Nicholas McMurry: agreed. To put it simply, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Hang on a minute, they are not POW’s as Herr Putin has said it is not a “war”
I wonder if “organised” groups like paid Syrian mercenaries or Chechen terrorists are to be treated as POW’s? Given their track records of brutality and human rights abuses, they should be shot out of hand.
@Paul Shepherd: mercenaries are not entitled to combatant nor prisoners of war status afforded under the Geneva Convention. As for ‘terrorists’ if they are members of a local opposition, clearly identifiable and openly carrying weapons they are entitled to such status.
@D. Memery: I’m sure their victims will be relieved that their human rights will be respected.
@Paul Shepherd: perhaps you should direct your critism at the authors of the convention and the International Red Cross so! If you read the link you will note that although mercenaries are not entitled the combatant status they are permitted to be detained and tried for any crimes committed under civilian law.
If some dude came to my country and attacked my family n friends and then I captured him. I wouldn’t be caring if some yolk from the UN thought filming him was degrading. To be honest i probably wouldnt be keeping him alive in the first place.
@Rob Gale: What is the point in defending our values if we don’t have any?
I’m sorry but did Russia worry about all the innocents they have killed in cold blood? Women, children, the old and the sick. And those soldiers looked like middle Eastern blokes that joined up.
@Roy Dowling: oh b1. te me you @$$ wipe. I’m not gender biased I’m on the side of those unable to defend themselves. Why are there such €€jits here making such immature uneducated comments in the middle of a conflict.
@Anna Carr: hopefully I’ll never get close enough to you to b1.te you. People like you are why are to the problems of this world. You expect all men capable to defend themselves but no women are capable to defend themselves. Makes it more gender bias on your side.
I think Ukraine needs to take the high ground and not engage in tactics Putin would use.
Civilians didn’t sign up to the Geneva convention to protect Russian invaders. When this goes full guerilla warfare those sad phone calls will be public executions.
The general perception is that Putin started a war. I would suggest cautiously that Putin started an invasion. By way of Ukraine’s defence, a war began. Compare this war to the US troops exiting Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda (although already largely present with the country) carried out an invasion. Not a war. While I admire Zelenskyy’s bravery and hope the best for him, I can’t help but think he’s not being realistic in meeting Putin halfway. That Ireland voted to fast-track Ukraine into the EU will only stoke the fire. But then Ireland is just an EU provincial government. France / Netherlands who both vetoed the move is a tad more realistic.
have your say