Thousands March In Moscow One Year After Opposition Leader’s Murder
KABUL: (MEP) Thousands of Russian citezins have pured to the streets in Moscow in memory of the country’s opposition leader ‘Boris Nemtsov’ on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of his death, demanding the authorities to punish his killer.
The 55-year-old Nemtsov, an opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, was shot dead near the Kremlin walls late in the evening of Feb. 27, 2015, as he walked home with his girlfriend from a restaurant.
The brutality so close to the centre of Russian power both frightened and angered supporters of the beleaguered opposition.
“He was the embodiment of freedom and courage, he was a model for me,” said marcher Kamala Igamberdiyeva, a 26-year-old accountant. “We still have a chance if the opposition shows wisdom and unites.”
Investigators have charged a group of Chechen men with his murder. But Nemtsov’s supporters say the suspects are just low-level operatives who were paid to kill the prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin. They say the person who ordered the hit has been neither identified nor arrested.
“Nemtsov was killed because he had exposed Putin for what he was in various reports,” one of the marchers, Irina Vorobyova, 60, told Reuters. “He was a worthy political opponent for Putin but he had insulted him.
“Nemtsov’s death was the result of the atmosphere of hatred in our country,” said 78-year-old demonstrator Pavel Movshovich.
