MOSCOW: Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis, was shot dead steps from the Kremlin in a murder that underscored the risks taken by the Russian opposition.

Mr Nemtsov, 55, was shot four times in the back by assailants in a white car as he walked across a bridge over the Moskva River in central Moscow with a Ukrainian woman, who was unhurt, just before midnight on Friday, police said.

Police sealed off the blood-stained bridge close to the red walls of the Kremlin and Red Square for two hours after the gangland-style killing reminiscent of Russia in the chaotic 1990s after the collapse of the Communist Soviet Union.

A former deputy premier, Boris Nemtsov is the most prominent opposition figure to have been assassinated

A former deputy prime minister who had feared he would be murdered, Mr Nemtsov is the most prominent opposition figure killed in Mr Putin’s 15-year-rule.

The Kremlin deflected blame and the government said everything must be done to find the killers.

Mr Putin condemned the “brutal” slaying and took the investigation under presidential control, saying it could have been a contract killing and a “provocation” on the eve of a big opposition protest Mr Nemtsov had been due to lead on Sunday.

But the killing focused attention on the tough treatment of Kremlin opponents in Mr Putin’s third term, during which several leading critics have been jailed or have fled the country following mass rallies against the former KGB spy three years ago.

“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,” Mikhail Kasyanov, an opposition leader and a former prime minister under Mr Putin, said at the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

“Certain forces will try to use the killing to their own advantage. They are thinking how to get rid of Putin,” he said.

US President Barack Obama called for a prompt, impartial and transparent investigation to ensure those responsible were brought to justice for the “vicious killing”.

“Nemtsov was a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled,” Mr Obama, who has fiercely criticised Mr Putin over Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis, said in a statement.

Some opposition figures blamed the Kremlin directly. Others depicted Russian society as in moral decline, describing an environment where Mr Putin demands total loyalty and supporters go to great lengths to do what they think may please him.

“In Putin’s atmosphere of hatred and violence, abroad and in Russia, bloodshed is the prerequisite to show loyalty, that you are on the team,” another opposition leader, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, said on Twitter.

“If Putin gave (the) order to murder Boris Nemtsov is not the point. It is Putin’s dictatorship. His 24/7 propaganda about enemies of the state.”

Mr Nemtsov, who had been out walking on Great Moskvoretsky Bridge after a meal in a restaurant by Red Square, had said in a recent interview he was concerned that the president might want him dead over his opposition to the conflict in Ukraine.

“Boris periodically received anonymous threats on social networking sites ... Boris was worried,” said opposition politician Ilya Yashin.

Sunday’s opposition march is intended to protest against the war in east Ukraine, where pro-Russia rebels have seized a swathe of territory. Kiev, the West and some Russians accuse Moscow of sending troops to support the rebels, an accusation Russia has repeatedly denied.

Tall, with a mop of black curly hair that had started to turn grey, Mr Nemtsov often dressed casually in big sweaters and was known for booming speeches criticising Mr Putin at rallies.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2015

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