|
 Aides to Putin deny any involvement in killing Nemtsov, who was
shot in the back four times on Friday within sight of the Kremlin
walls. Nemtsov's friends say he was the victim of an atmosphere of
hatred whipped up against anyone who opposes the president.
"The shots were fired not only at Nemtsov but at all of us, at
democracy in Russia," Gennady Gudkov, a prominent Kremlin opponent,
said in a speech delivered next to the coffin.
"We never thought this could happen, but it did. Rest in peace my
friend, your work will be continued."
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was the most prominent
opposition figure to be murdered in Russia during Putin's 15-year
rule.
In a gesture of conciliation from the Kremlin, Deputy Prime Minister
Arkady Dvorkovich joined mourners filing into the hall where his
open casket was on display. Dvorkovich, from the Kremlin's
increasingly sidelined liberal camp, was carrying a bunch of red
flowers.
For the most part though, the mourners were die-hard Kremlin
opponents who feel deep alarm at Nemtsov's killing but who represent
only a minority of the Russian population. Polls show most Russians
support Putin, despite a plummeting rouble and international
sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
Nemtsov's coffin stood in the centre of a hall at a human rights
centre named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. The casket lid
was partially open to reveal his head. Photographs of the
55-year-old hung on the walls, and sombre music played.
Nemtsov's mother, dressed in black, stood stooped over the coffin.
His ex-wife, Yekaterina Odintsova, with a black headscarf pulled
over her blonde hair, stood nearby. Nemtsov is to be buried later on
Tuesday at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow.
The queue of people waiting to go in stretched about a kilometre
(mile) in the streets outside the hall.
"He was our hope," said Tatyana, a pensioner queuing to pay her
respects. "I feel like Putin killed me on the day he died. This last
year has been full of suffering."
Naina Yeltsina, the widow of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin,
who brought Nemtsov into his government in the 1990s and briefly
viewed him as a potential successor, was among the mourners.
Former British Prime Minister John Major was present but Poland said
the speaker of its upper house of parliament, Bogdan Borusewicz, was
prevented from attending because Russia would not issue him with an
entry visa. Latvia said its former foreign minister, Sandra
Kalniete, was also denied entry.
[to top of second column]
|
KREMLIN BACKDROP
The killing of a leading opponent against the backdrop of the
Kremlin, in an area closely watched by the security services, has
been deeply awkward for Putin.
In an interview with Reuters in Washington, President Barack Obama
said it was a sign of a worsening climate in Russia, where civil
rights and media freedoms have been rolled back.
Russian government officials have said they suspect the murder was a
"provocation" carried out by Putin's opponents to discredit him.
Sergei Kiriyenko, a former prime minister who now runs the state
atomic agency, said it had the hallmarks of a hit ordered by
oligarchs who had fallen out with the Kremlin. "It was a political
murder," he said. "Think of who benefits."
Russian investigators say they are actively working to track down
Nemtsov's killers. The Investigative Committee handling the case
said it had obtained closed-circuit television footage from the
scene, and scheduled ballistic and medical tests.
Nemtsov's girlfriend, Anna Duritskaya, who was with him at the
moment he was shot on a bridge near Red Square, has returned to her
native Ukraine, the committee said in a statement. It said she had
already given evidence and promised to continue to cooperate with
investigators.
The killing may galvanise Russia's splintered liberal opposition,
and deepen a sense among urban, middle-class professionals that
their country is slipping into a cycle of fear and repression.
But it is unlikely to cause an upsurge of dissent across society.
Nemtsov's fierce criticism of the Russian intervention in Ukraine
was out of step with the broader public mood, and he was tainted by
his time in government in the chaotic 1990s.
(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
