Vladimir Putin condemns Boris Nemtsov murder

Russian president calls death a political killing, seemingly contradicting theories the former deputy prime minister was shot over a domestic or business row

The Guardian, Alec Luhn in Moscow, 4 March 2015

Flowers laid in Warsaw by Russians living in Poland in memory
 of Boris Nemtsov. Photograph: Radek Pietruszka/EPA

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has condemned the killing of the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov as a “disgrace” and called on law enforcement to finally rid Russia of political murders.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead on Friday evening as he walked with his girlfriend near Red Square. He is the most prominent opposition figure to be killed in Russia during Putin’s 15-year rule.

Putin’s remarks appear to contradict theories that Nemtsov’s killing was motivated by a domestic or business dispute.

“The most serious attention should be paid to high-profile crimes, including those with political motives,” Putin told top interior ministry officials on Wednesday. “We need to finally rid Russia of disgraces and tragedies like the one that we have recently endured and seen, I mean the murder, the provocative murder, of Boris Nemtsov right in the centre of the capital.”

Together with reports that a well-regarded investigator has been appointed to lead the Nemtsov case, Putin’s statement raised hopes that Russian authorities would conduct a thorough investigation of the shooting. Many prominent political murders have remained unsolved in the past, and the US president, Barack Obama, and Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, have called on the Kremlin to make sure the Nemtsov killing is properly investigated.

Nemtsov, who served in Boris Yeltsin’s government, became an outspoken critic of Putin, a fixture at opposition protests and the author of several reports on state corruption, including one before the Sochi Winter Olympics. He was killed by four bullets to the back while walking with his Ukrainian girlfriend across Bolshoi Moskovoretsky bridge next to the Kremlin on Friday night.

The only camera footage published so far from the time of the killing does not show the shooting itself, and Nemtsov’s girlfriend, Anna Duritskaya, has said she did not see the killer’s face or the getaway car’s licence plate number.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that investigators were looking for a state-owned car that drove past the murder scene after police had already arrived. The vehicle is reportedly owned by a state enterprise that provides security to government institutions including the finance ministry.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said shortly after Nemtsov’s murder that it was likely a provocation meant to discredit the Kremlin. The investigative committee has said it believes Nemtsov may have been killed by Islamic terrorists over “internal Ukrainian events” or as a “sacrificial victim” by nefarious forces trying to destabilise the country.

Vladimir Markin, the investigators’ spokesman, said the murder could be tied to Nemtsov’s personal life or business dealings, while the popular pro-Kremlin tabloid LifeNews has claimed Nemtsov recently paid for an abortion for his girlfriend and had rival lovers. Several liberal political analysts have said they believe someone from the far-right could have killed Nemtsov.

But opposition leaders have argued the murder was likely inspired by an atmosphere of hatred and paranoia over what Putin has called a “fifth column” of “national traitors”. This message has been promoted by state-controlled television as Moscow has confronted the west over Ukraine and backed pro-Russia rebels there.

Although the president warned that “extremists are poisoning society with militant nationalism, intolerance and aggression”, his comments did not seem to indicate any thaw in the Kremlin’s campaign against the marginalised opposition.

“We’re running into attempts to use so-called colour technologies, from the organisation of illegal street demonstrations to the open propaganda of enmity and hatred on social networks,” Putin said in a reference to the “colour revolutions” that have brought pro-western governments to power in former Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin voices have also accused the CIA of trying to orchestrate a regime change in Russia and nearby countries.

A source close to the Nemtsov investigation said high-ranking detective Igor Krasnov had been appointed to lead the case, the newspaper RBC reported. Krasnov is known for bringing Russian nationalists to trial for the murders of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Anastasia Baburova, and the attempted murder of the former deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais.

Political analyst Alexander Ivakhnik told the Guardian that after Putin’s comments on Wednesday, “Markin will stop putting out explanations that it was motivated by jealousy against Nemtsov, or a business disagreement”. But whether the investigation will find the organisers of the killing depends on whom its results point to, he said.

“If it leads to people high in the structures of the Russian intelligence services, for instance, then I don’t think the case will move forward,” he said. “I think they will obstruct it or will punish those who carried it out while those who ordered it remain behind the scenes.”

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