That doesn’t mean you have to kill him

On February 27, 2015, the leader of the democratic opposition in Russia was killed with five shots to his back in the center of Moscow: on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Who could be behind this crime? A short film about the 2015 assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, created by Leonid Martynyuk (co-authored with Boris Nemtsov a number of reports) and political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky. On October 6, 2016, the documentary was presented in National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Washington DC, USA. https://imrussia.org/en/the-rundown/e… On October 19, 2016, the documentary was presented in European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.eu-events.eu/4947-film-scr… On October 6, 2016, the film was screened on Shuster live, TV Chanal, Ukraine. https://youtu.be/N9MCxSQDZlY?t=2m7s The role of Russian special services: According to Andrei Piontkovsky and Garry Kasparov, the sheer proximity of the assassination site to Red Square implicates Russia’s security services in Nemtsov’s murder. No surveillance footage of the murder has been found because the FSB itself likely participated in it. Russia’s security services had Nemtsov under surveillance 24/7: It is highly unlikely that his assassins would have escaped notice from state security services, The state concluded its investigation of Nemtsov’s murder in a mere six days, the shortest investigation into a political killing in modern Russian history. Perpetrators were Chechen officers: Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and National Guard Director Viktor Zolotov are devoted loyalists to Putin: Kadyrov has followed the rules of the game the Kremlin has established, Zolotov was promoted to influential positions because of his loyalty to Putin. Zolotov became a permanent member of Russia’s Security Council, which is the modern incarnation of the Soviet politburo According to Andrei Piontkovsky: Four of the Chechens accused of murdering Nemtsov were officers in the Chechen security service’s Sever regiment, a group loyal to Kadyrov, Kadyrov coordinated with Chechen security agencies to have Nemtsov killed. According to Akhmed Zakaev, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria: Kadyrov is totally controlled by the Kremlin. Masterminds never interrogated. In the year following the murder, not one of the plot’s masterminds was interrogated. According to Gennady Gudkov, Russian politician and businessman, former deputy of the State Duma: The government made a political decision to avoid a complete investigation of Nemtsov’s murder Likely sequence of events: Summer 2014: Putin instructed Viktor Zolotov and Evgeniy Murov (head of the FSB) to assassinate Nemtsov. Zolotov then passed instructions on to Kadyrov, Kadyrov mobilized Chechen security services, Zolotov organized his soldiers, and Murov organized the FSB, The teams conducted surveillance of Nemtsov’s movements around Moscow, The FSB’s goal was to arrest the assassins as quickly as possible, in order to weaken Kadyrov’s influence in Putin’s inner circle, After Putin realized that the rivalry between Kadyrov and the FSB threatened the stability of regime, Putin ordered the investigation closed.