Who Killed Boris Nemtsov?

Who Killed Boris Nemtsov?
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Highlights

In the absence of any arrest or claim of responsibility, there are multiple theories for the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. According to a report in BBC, Was he killed because he opposed the policies of President Vladimir Putin and Russia\'s alleged covert war in Ukraine? Was he cut down in full view of the Kremlin in an attempt to discredit Russia\'s leaders or even intimidate them, or incite a rebellion against them? Perhaps it was an opportunistic attack by someone harbouring a grudge? Here are some of the theories circulating about who might be behind the killing, theories which have become increasingly farfetched in the politically skewed view of Russia\'s largely state-controlled media.

In the absence of any arrest or claim of responsibility, there are multiple theories for the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. According to a report in BBC, Was he killed because he opposed the policies of President Vladimir Putin and Russia's alleged covert war in Ukraine? Was he cut down in full view of the Kremlin in an attempt to discredit Russia's leaders or even intimidate them, or incite a rebellion against them? Perhaps it was an opportunistic attack by someone harbouring a grudge? Here are some of the theories circulating about who might be behind the killing, theories which have become increasingly farfetched in the politically skewed view of Russia's largely state-controlled media.

The early cordial relations between Boris Nemtsov (left) and Vladimir Putin, seen here at the Kremlin in July 2000, quickly deteriorated. The one view you are unlikely to hear in the Russian media is that President Putin had anything to do with the killing. On the face of it, Nemtsov was a well-known, media-friendly, veteran opposition politician who was just days from leading an anti-war rally in Moscow (cancelled after his death).

"If you support stopping Russia's war with Ukraine, if you support stopping Putin's aggression, come to the Spring March in Maryino [a Moscow suburb] on 1 March," he wrote in a social media post, published hours before he was shot (in Russian).

According to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Nemtsov was planning to publish "some persuasive evidence about the involvement of Russian armed forces in Ukraine". Such activities were bound to antagonise the Kremlin (as well as Russian nationalists backing the rebel cause in Ukraine, of course). But the idea that Mr Putin might have ordered Nemtsov's killing is "illogical" and "unacceptable" his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the BBC.

Even if you accept the possibility that the Kremlin might murder dissidents, the question remains: why kill Nemtsov and not other, younger, much more dangerous opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny?

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