Boris Nemstov planned to lead a march against the Russian economic policies and the country’s apparent part in an ongoing conflict in neighboring Ukraine. Instead, tens of thousands marched through Moscow to mourn the Russian opposition leader who was shot to death just outside of the Kremlin on Friday.
Just weeks before he was gunned down while walking home with his girlfriend, Nemstov told a Russian news site, “I’m afraid [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will kill me. I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine. I couldn’t dislike him more.”
Nemstov was a former deputy prime minister and an outspoken critic of Putin’s policies. His death is seen as the “highest-profile political assassination in Russia in a decade.”
The fact that so many have come together to mourn him suggests widespread support for his political views and, according to some, might signal increased opposition to Putin — or even destabilization of the Russian president’s tight grip on power.
"I'm not afraid", "No words", "Propaganda murders" at Nemtsov mourning demo in Moscow http://t.co/ydzOFCHmVG pic.twitter.com/YLBv1tGiIR
— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) March 1, 2015
“The country needs a political reform,” Nemstov is believed to have said on Ekho Moskvy radio just hours before his death. “When power is concentrated in the hands of one person and this person rules forever, this will lead to an absolute catastrophe, absolute.”
Various international journalists and Russia watchers have pointed to the proximity of the crime scene to the seat of Russian power, a highly guarded set of buildings surrounded by high walls.
It's obvious that Kremlin cameras have a clear view of the murder site: pic.twitter.com/Ik5ZEMsENj
— Howard Amos (@howardamos) February 28, 2015
'Given the fact that Nemtsov was under constant surveillance by sec. services one shd be v daring to kill him there' says @AndreiSoldatov
— kriszta satori (@fulelo) February 28, 2015
Many see the location of the murder and its timing before a large demonstration organized by Nemstov to be evidence of the government’s involvement in his death.
“The fact that they killed him is a message to frighten everyone, the brave and the not brave,” Ilya Yashin, a member of Nemtsov’s Solidarity Party said. “That this is what happens to people who go against the government of our country.”
Russian authorities, however, have drawn up a slew of competing theories about the 55-year-old’s murder. They claim to be investigating the assassination and have pointed to a range of possible culprits from Nemstov’s fellow opposition leaders who they say may have wanted to make a martyr out of him to Islamist terrorists angry over his response to the murders at the French satirical magazine in Paris in January.
But opposition activists point their fingers squarely at Putin. Even if he didn’t order the killing, one said on Twitter, “[Putin is] the inciter of hatred, hysteria, and anger among the people.”