On February 27, 2015, Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov, pictured above with his daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, was gunned down in Moscow, right front of the Kremlin. Although the Russian government prosecuted Chechens for the killing of Nemtsov, they never identified the person that ordered the murder, nor did they release the full tape of Nemtsov's death during the trial.
Nemtsov was known and admired inside and outside of Russia for fearlessly challenging Putin's dictatorship. He wrote reports on government corruption which, as Russia scholar Dr. Knight wrote in Orders to Kill, caused enormous panic.
He challenged Putin's fraudulent "election" results, exposing how millions of votes were stolen. He encouraged the United States to sign the Magnitsky Sanctions into law in 2012, punishing the murderers of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other corrupt henchmen.
He condemned Putin's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. He exposed how, despite Putin loudly claiming the opposite, Russia was continually sending mercenaries into eastern Ukraine to stir up provocations.
It was this last damning investigation that undoubtedly contributed to Nemtsov's murder. Shortly after he was killed, FSB agents raided his property and removed his computer. His girlfriend was unlawfully detained by FSB agents, as she was the only witness to the murder. The security cameras that are usually always on were switched off for the time it took to accost Nemtsov and shoot him four more times.
As is always the case with the Russian terrorist regime of Vladimir Putin, the authorities further denigrated Nemtsov's dignity by spreading alternative theories for Nemtsov's death. One of these was that Islamic terrorists had murdered Nemtsov in revenge for Nemtsov condemning the Charlie Hebdo massacre of January 2015. The fact that such a claim was obviously implausible didn't matter: all that mattered was convincing the average Russian that nobody could tell the cause.
I won't go into the details about the Chechens who were prosecuted and imprisoned for Nemtsov's death. The Russian legal system is the crucible of criminality in that country. Nothing that Russian lawyers, judges, or government investigators say can be trusted if they are adjudicating a politically sensitive case. Every Russian knows that their legal system waits for "a call from upstairs" to decide the outcome of politically sensitive cases.
As far as I am concerned, the true culprits of Nemtsov's murder are Russia's own security services. This is what Russia scholar David Satter established in his own article. In it, he exposed damning details from the only available tapes of Nemtsov's death, the fact that one of the killers appeared to be speaking to an FSB agent named Gennady Kornienko, the fact that those seen walking ahead of Nemtsov on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge quickly jumped onto a platform to avoid being shot, and how the lawyer Zaurbek Sadakhanov requested an interrogation of Putin in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, and one of the responses was a vicious beating by unknown men. Sadakhanov subsequently fled Russia for his own safety.
Most importantly, Satter exposes key evidence that Putin had planned the murder of Nemtsov three years in advance.
All of this information will therefore sound shockingly familiar, following the Kremlin's murder of Nemtsov's political ally, Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny, on the 16th of February 2024. When Nemtsov was murdered, Navalny had been sent to prison on politically motivated charges. He was forbidden from attending Nemtsov's funeral, but later attended a memorial march for the fallen Russian politician.
We now know that Russia's federal security services planned their August 2020 poisoning of Navalny as far back as 2017, when they began following him intensively. The same three year time gap. Like Nemstov, Navalny had discussed the possibility of being murdered by the Kremlin, even after he recovered from what turned out to be a Novichok poisoning. Nemtsov's ally, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was to mysteriously fall ill and almost die on two occasions, in March 2015 and in 2017, with many of the same FSB agents assigned to Navalny also following Kara-Murza.
Following the August 2020 poisoning, the Kremlin again circulated alternative theories. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyev loudly discussed the lithium tablets that Navalny took, when there is no evidence that such tablets cause this reaction. Even more insultingly, Russian authorities suggested that Navalny might have cooked the Novichok and eaten it himself.
We can reach several conclusions from this information.
First, that Russia has an active state program dedicated to the murder of its own citizens. This includes the FSB, the military intelligence agency (GRU), and is covered up by Russia's Investigative Committee, federal judges, lawyers, and the prison system. This program undoubtedly costs millions, if not billions of roubles.
Second, that the Russian government plans in advance who is to be murdered. Such targets may experience scare tactics such as assaults, burglaries, or kidnapping in advance, before Russian agents receive a direct order to kill.
Third, the Russian government knows full well that many will blame Putin for the killings. In order to maintain confusion, it acts even pre-emptively to circulate alternative theories about the killing. Such are directed at Putin's followers and apathetic Russians. But those connected to the murder victim understand that this is a warning.
Fourth, the Russian government conspires to frustrate any independent investigation by fabricating a legal progress to investigate its own murders. This is again designed to cause confusion by suggesting that if Putin had committed the killings, he wouldn't want to be involved in the investigation. In fact, such investigations are not designed for identifying the real culprits, but for fabricating a case against culprits that the government has already shown. More importantly, the investigation helps the government murderers hide their tracks. Hence why, in Satter's article above, one of the Chechens recanted his testimony, saying it had been given under torture.
Fifth, the Russian government uses campaigns of threats and violence against anyone who doesn't accept the official narrative and digs deeper. These include random assaults, burglaries, and stalking.
Sixth, Russian propagandists on RT, Channel One, and NTB are fully aware that the Russian government is responsible for these murders. Their job is to confuse the public with alternative theories. In return, they receive high salaries, luxury houses, and extended airtime.
It should be clear by now that Russia under Vladimir Putin is a terrorist state. Each and every one of these murders is an act of domestic terrorism, to silence dissent, punish "traitors", and demoralise and fragment the remaining opposition.
It should also be clear by now that Putin has no political legitimacy whatsoever. To call him "president", when he acts to systematically eliminate his opposition, is to render the word meaningless. Putin has never won any democratic challenge without criminality, and his rise to power was entirely predicated on frustrating investigation into his predecessor's corruption.
Many outside Russia do not realise that Boris Nemtsov was on the rise under Yeltsin's administration. He was incredibly popular with his constituency, and known for being courteous under pressure. In a debate with the Russian demagogue and bigot, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Nemtsov remained calm, while Zhirinovsky got so worked up that he threw a glass of liquid over Nemtsov.
By all rights, Nemtsov deserved to become Russia's Prime Minister and maybe even president; in his book, he recalled his secretary telling him that she had spoken with a Vladimir Putin. Like many Russians in the late 1990's, the woman had no idea who Putin was.
Nemtsov would be relegated to the opposition, working as the head of the Yabloko Party. His collaboration with Alexei Navalny seems to have begun in the 2010s.
Nemtsov outlived several Russians who died in violent and mysterious ways. In November 1998, he was profoundly shocked when Russian liberal politician, Galina Starovoitova, was assassinated in St Petersburg outside her apartment. She had been followed home by an FSB agent on the night of her murder. The sole witness was visited repeatedly by Vladimir Putin while in hospital. Nemtsov called Starovoitova one of the most intelligent politicians in the Russian politics.
When renowned Novaya Gazeta journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, was murdered in October 2006, Nemtsov later called for a memorial to be erected in her honour.
It was clear to Nemtsov that he lived a dangerous life. David Satter notes that Nemtsov was warned about the possibility of assassination while in Oslo in 2012. His mother also warned him, and Nemtsov discussed his own and his mother's respective during a magazine interview. The late American Senator John McCain, again warned Nemtsov when the Russian was in the USA to campaign for sanctions against the murderers of Sergei Magnitsky and those upholding Putin's dictatorship. Nemtsov refused to stay away from Russia, saying he was fighting for his country.
Nemtsov's immense bravery and firm belief in personal freedom and the rule of law cost him his life. Putin simply could not stand to have such a threat to the terrorist state he had built since 1999. For a while, he tolerated Nemtsov as opposition, until Nemtsov became more and more emboldened, especially by lobbying for Magnitsky Sanctions with the American-British financier, Bill Browder, in 2012. These represented a direct threat to Putin's finances, without which he could not consolidate his dictatorship. It's no coincidence in my view that Satter traces plans to murder Nemtsov back to that same 2012.
Are we to stand by and continue to watch this terrorist, Vladimir Putin, murder his opposition again and again? It's time for Russia to face unprecedented pressure in response to the murder of Alexei Navalny this month. Russia must face interrogation at international criminal courts. The international arrest warrant on Putin must be expanded, and be kept permanent.
There must be no welcome back for Russia after the war in Ukraine ends if Putin and his terrorist state are still in power. Foreign countries must publicise all of the political murders Putin has committed, backed with damning evidence the Kremlin cannot deny. All Russians involved in these murders must face sanctions, including asset confiscation. They must never be allowed to set foot in Western nations.
Widespread acknowledgement that Putin is a terrorist will isolate the Kremlin and make the dictator lose face internationally. This will make it harder for Putin to command any respect in Russia.
Nemtsov said that it took a long time for change to come to Russia, and wanted that change to come peacefully. Foreign nations cannot force regime change in Russia, nor should they attempt this. But foreign nations should not provide any legitimacy for Russia's terrorist regime, nor harbour agents of that terrorist regime in their own countries. This is why Nemtsov fought for the United States to apply financial sanctions on Russian criminals.
We have a duty to continue Nemtsov's work and hold this government of terrorists accountable.
Вечная память Борису Ефимовичу!
