Boris Nemtsov's murder is another dark sign for Russia - Washington Post
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Последние новости в мире |
Московские полицейские нашли автомобиль, на котором могли убегать убийцы Немцова
Последние новости в мире Ren.tv сообщает, что Анна и Борис якобы были любовниками. Политика расстреляли на ее глазах. Автомобиль, на котором ехали убийцы, правоохранители нашли в одном из дворов в центре Москвы. Сейчас оперативники и эксперты осматривают автомобиль. Возможно ... и другие » |
Boris Nemtsov's murder is another dark sign for Russia
Washington Post BORIS NEMTSOV was a courageous Russian politician who never gave up on the dream that the country could make the transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy. Once an elected governor and a deputy prime minister in the government of Boris ... |
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Intrigue and Fear Flood Russia After Killing of Boris Nemtsov
New York Times MOSCOW — About two weeks before he was shot and killed in the highest-profile political assassination in Russia in a decade, Boris Y. Nemtsov met with an old friend to discuss his latest research into what he said was dissembling and misdeeds in the ... Boris Nemtsov's Murder May Have Been Provocation: Russian OfficialsNBCNews.com Russian opposition mourns murdered leader NemtsovReuters Putin critic, Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov killed in MoscowWashington Post Bloomberg -BBC News all 1,590 news articles » |
Vladimir Putin and media are violently hostile to challenges to the state, an intolerance that has helped end the life of another opposition figure
Boris Nemtsov’s dead body was still lying on the icy asphalt when Vladimir Putin’s spokesman announced that the president believed the murder to be a “provocation”.
“With all due respect to the memory of Boris Nemtsov, in political terms he did not pose any threat to the current Russian leadership or Vladimir Putin. If we compare popularity levels, Putin’s and the government’s ratings and so on, in general Boris Nemtsov was just a little bit more than an average citizen,” Dmitry Peskov added later on.
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Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine continued withdrawing tanks and other military vehicles Saturday from the front lines, obeying a cease-fire reached in mid-February. Ukraine said there was a decrease in violence Friday night into Saturday. Ukraine's military reported its first deaths in three days earlier on Friday. A Ukrainian military spokesman said three government soldiers were killed and seven wounded in clashes with separatists in the east. President Petro...
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An old friend recounted hearing the former deputy prime minister tell of dangerous new research on Russian involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
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BERLIN (AP) -- Western leaders are condemning the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and pressing the Kremlin to ensure that the killing is investigated thoroughly. Here is a selection of comments....
Russian opposition politician and former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov has died after being shot four times on a street in Moscow. Report by Jennifer Cordingley.
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A Russian opposition leader and fierce critic of President Vladmir Putin, Boris Nemtsov, was shot dead in central Moscow late Friday ahead of a major opposition rally this weekend, police said....
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Member Of Nemtsov's Party Beaten, Robbed In Tolyattiby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Andrei Balin, the co-chairman of the local branch of the Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party in the central Russian city of Talyatti, was beaten and robbed shortly before the party's leader, Boris Nemtsov, was gunned down in Moscow.
The Russian state agency Roskomnadzor says it has unblocked the website of opposition figure and anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny.
Russia's Milestones Are Gravestonesby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
Boris Nemtsov is the latest in a long list of killings and suspicious deaths that have defined Vladimir Putin's Russia.
MOSCOW (AP) -- Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov's killing follows the slaying over the past decade of several other high-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin and his policies. Here is a look at some of the best-known cases....
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When reporters asked former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov who was behind the assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, he dismissed the question as irrelevant.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says Russian opposition politician and Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov was killed because he was going to reveal evidence of Moscow's involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
- Outgoing attorney general says racism is 'at least a piece of' why so many oppose him and Barack Obama
- Famously said America is 'a nation of cowards' on race issues
- Conservatives have claimed he uses race to deflect attention from legitimate policy criticisms
- Interviewer prodded Holder, declaring that Republican racists were 'more than (on the) fringe'
Published: 12:14 EST, 27 February 2015 | Updated: 12:49 EST, 27 February 2015
Attorney General Eric Holder suggested Friday that the Obama administration's opponents have in part staked out their positions because he and the president are black.
'There have been times when I thought that’s at least a piece of it,' he said.
But it's 'hard to look into people’s minds, you know, their hearts.'
The graceless exit interview will become grist for conservatives who remain convinced that Holder has used race issues to deflect attention from legitimate criticisms.
A Politico reporter pressed Holder on whether the White House's detractors were motivated by racial animus, declaring that they were 'more than (on the) fringe.'
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Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder suggested America is still cowardly on race – especially Republicans
Conservatives, the outgoing attorney general said, 'use a whole variety of things' to go after the African-American presdient and his top law enforcer.
'You know, "You weren’t born in this country, you are the 'other'",' he parroted.
'I mean, you come up with other – you come up with ways in which you try to be effective in your attacks.'
'And certain people have been, you know, less sensitive than they should have been to understand that certain things, given our history,' he said, seemingly invoking America's history of slavery from more than 150 years ago.
'There are certain places that you just shouldn’t – you shouldn’t go.'
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Holder famously said just days after assuming his office in February 2009 that American had been 'a nation of cowards' on race.
'Race-related issues,' he claimed in a speech, 'continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion.'
On his way out of the Justice Department, Holder said he would soon call for a change in the standard of proof the agency uses when deciding whether it can prosecute Americans in cases where civil rights abuses are alleged.
He plans to make a move before his successor, New York federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch, moves into his office.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Lynch yesterday, with three Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for her. A full Senate vote will come soon.
NO CHARGES: Georeg Zimmerman (left) won't face civicl rights prosecution for killing Trayvon Martin (right), and Holder wants to change the future standard of proof
Changing the civil-rights prosecution standard would make it easier for the DOJ to prosecute Americans like George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot and killed the unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in 2012.
The Obama administration announced this week that it won't move forward on that case since it had 'insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges.'
Holder seemed to regret that outcome.
'I think some serious consideration needs to be given to the standard of proof that has to be met before federal involvement is appropriate, and that’s something that I am going to be talking about before I leave office,' he said.
'I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop – make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disintereste' in the outcome.
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· · · · ·
- Illinois Representative Aaron Schock paid $35,000 earlier this month and $5,000 on Thursday to Illinois decorating firm Euro Trash
- His official House expense account had previously paid for the renovations
- Schock has been under scrutiny for using taxpayer money to fund project
- He's also been criticized for using his official and campaign funds for flights on donor-owned planes and concert tickets
- His office is reviewing those transportation and entertainment charges
Published: 13:22 EST, 27 February 2015 | Updated: 15:04 EST, 28 February 2015
Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock has reportedly repaid the US Government $40,000 from his personal checking account for redecoration to his congressional office in the style of the TV show Downton Abbey.
Schock, 33, paid $35,000 earlier this month to the owner of the Illinois decorating firm Euro Trash, and $5,000 more on Thursday, according to financial records reviewed by the Associated Press.
His official House expense account had previously paid the group for its services.
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Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock has reimbursed the U.S. Government for $40,000 worth of renovations he made to his congressional office
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Photos taken in January of Schock's new office in the Rayburn Office Building, which was designed to resemble the dining room of the PBS show Downton Abbey
Schock, a rising star in the Republican Party, has been under scrutiny for using taxpayer money to pay for the redecorating, as well as using his official and campaign funds for flights on donor-owned planes and concert tickets.
The Washington Post was first to describe the office decorations in early February. A watchdog group has since requested a House ethics review of the congressman's spending.
Schock's office said Friday his payments made good on an earlier promise to personally shoulder the costs of the office renovation.
Schock wrote two checks - for $25,000 on February 4 and $10,000 on February 6 - to Tracy 'Annie' Brahler, owner of Euro Trash. He wrote a third check for $5,000 on Thursday.
'Congressman Schock has fulfilled his commitment to pay for all the renovation costs,' his office said Friday in a prepared statement.
It said that while congressional office costs are usually paid from office expense accounts, 'the congressman believed it appropriate to pay these costs himself.'
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Over the last month, he has paid for his decor with three checks to Tracy 'Annie' Brahler, owner of Euro Trash: one check on February 4 for $25,000, one on February 6 for $10,000 and one on Thursday for $5,000
Schock is in his fourth term representing the Peoria and Springfield areas.
This week, Schock brought on board a team of campaign finance lawyers and public relations experts to address the controversy about his expenses.
His financial charges - including the use of his donors' private aircraft and concert tickets - were detailed by the AP and other news organizations since news of the decoration work became public.
An AP review this week identified at least a dozen flights worth more than $40,000 on contributors' planes since mid-2011, tracking Schock's reliance on the aircraft partly through the congressman's pictures uploaded to his Instagram account.
The AP extracted hidden location data associated with each image; it then correlated it with flight records showing airport stopovers and expenses later billed for air travel against Schock's office and campaign records.
Lawmakers can use office funds for private flights as long as payments cover their share of the costs.
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Schock's financial charges have been made public after organizations questioned what his expenses were going toward. He has spent thousands on concerts and car mileage reimbursements
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When Schock's office originally made headlines, the congressman wouldn't reveal if the inspiration for the room was the hit TV show Downton Abbey (pictured above)
But most of the flights Schock covered with office funds occurred before the House changed its rules in January 2013.
Those earlier rules prohibited lawmakers from using those accounts to pay for flights on private aircraft, allowing payments only for federally licensed charter and commercial flights.
Schock previously told the AP he travels frequently throughout his Peoria-area district 'to stay connected with my constituents,' and that he takes compliance with congressional funding rules seriously.
Schock also spent thousands more on tickets for concerts, car mileage reimbursements - among the highest in Congress - and took his interns to a sold-out Katy Perry concert last June.
His office is still reviewing those transportation and entertainment charges.
The Post first reported that Brahler donated her services as she decorated Schock's Washington office with red carpet and red walls accented with antique-looking frames and sconces reminiscent of 'Downton Abbey.'
The popular PBS show depicts the lives of aristocratic families and their servants in 1920s England.
Brahler refunded to the U.S. government $35,000 paid to her from Schock's congressional office expense account, records show, within days of the Post's report.
A liberal-leaning group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had requested an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an outside panel that reviews ethics complaints against House members.
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· · · · · · · · · · ·
- Alina Kabayeva is widely believed to be the Russian President's lover
- According to several sources, she's mother to at least one of his children
- Russians consider the 31-year-old the country’s undeclared First Lady
- Although she is rarely seen in public — and never on Putin’s arm
- According to one Western intelligence report, Putin had a facelift in 2010 to iron out the creases in his forehead and the bags beneath his eyes
Published: 17:03 EST, 27 February 2015 | Updated: 16:51 EST, 28 February 2015
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Alluring: Many Russians consider Alina Kabayeva the country's undeclared First Lady
When a fleet of armoured cars pulled up outside a small cafe in the centre of Moscow last December, a crowd of onlookers gathered, waiting for a glimpse of whoever was inside.
Who on earth, they wondered, could be important enough to require a phalanx of machinegun-toting uniformed guards, all clad in bulletproof vests, just to buy a late-night cup of coffee at Coffeemania in Kudrinskaya Square?
When the car doors opened, they had their answer. Out stepped a strikingly beautiful young woman whose face was instantly recognisable to those who saw her.
Alina Kabayeva, a former Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast, is widely believed to be the lover of Russian President Vladimir Putin and, according to several sources, the mother of at least one of his children.
Although she is rarely seen in public — and never on Putin’s arm — the 31-year-old is seen by many Russians as their country’s undeclared First Lady.
But, like so many things in Putin’s private life, Alina Kabayeva has been kept hidden in the shadows.
Indeed, while the 62-year-old Russian leader continues to rattle his sabre at Nato after annexing parts of Ukraine, on the home front he has silenced stories about his private life, maintaining a carefully choreographed public image as the strongman hero of his country.
Russian journalists claim it is easier to report on matters of national security than the inner workings of Putin’s private life. As we shall see, there are repercussions for those who dare.
Nevertheless, fragments of information continue to seep out.
Last week, for example, a TV documentary which aired in Germany made a series of eye-catching allegations against the bellicose leader. According to the programme, Putin The Man, documents from the archives of Germany’s spy agency BND claim that during the early years of his marriage to his former wife Lyudmila, Putin was a ‘wife-beater and a philanderer’. The information was obtained by a female agent posing as the then Mrs Putin’s interpreter.
The programme also alleged that the Russian leader is terrified of getting old.
‘Putin is afraid of physical decay, he is afraid of ageing,’ biographer Ben Judah told the programme-makers.
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In a rare picture of them together, Alina Kabayeva recieves an admiring look from Vladimir Putin in 2008
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Miss Kabayeva performs her routines during two events in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2000 (left) and 1999 (right)
In an effort to stay young, Putin — who has in the past been photographed with tigers and polar bears as well as horse riding bare-chested in Siberia — is said to take hot and cold baths followed by gym sessions to hone his athletic figure.
According to one Western intelligence report, cited by the programme from German television company ZDF, he even had a facelift in 2010 to iron out the creases in his forehead and the bags beneath his eyes, in readiness for his return as president in 2012 after a brief stint as prime minister.
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His face, rarely expressive at any time, is now a frozen mask of smoothness, prompting further speculation that he has become a fan of Botox, the anti-wrinkle jab.
Keeping up with a lover half his age might, of course, be behind such drastic behaviour, not to mention his sudden divorce from Lyudmila after three decades of marriage and two daughters together.
Their separation was announced at the Kremlin in June 2013, minutes after Putin and his wife had watched a Russian state ballet performance of La Esmeralda.
‘A joint decision’ was how Putin described it, blaming his workload and looking tentatively and rather awkwardly at his 55-year-old wife for approval.
Lyudmila Putin nodded in agreement, fixing a smile on her face, adding that the couple ‘practically never see each other’ and summing up their separation with her own phrase — ‘a civilised divorce’.
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Putin hands flowers to Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Alina Kabayeva after awarding her with an Order of Friendship at an award ceremony in the Kremlin in 2001
But however blasé the Russian leader and his wife tried to be about the end of their union, evidence has gathered that beneath their seemingly amicable separation is a far more colourful story.
For the past year, speculation has been rife that the couple’s sudden divorce declaration was merely a prelude to some other big revelation yet to come about the President and his relationship with Kabayeva. Yet still this enigmatic woman appears to be living under a veil of secrecy.
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1983, the same year that Putin and former Aeroflot stewardess Lyudmila married, Kabayeva has been the talk of Moscow’s political and journalistic salons for the past seven years for her alleged affair with the president.
When asked her lover's name, she just giggled
Photographs of the glamorous, highly decorated sportswoman and Putin at official functions show the usually stony-faced president gawping at her like a besotted schoolboy.
Kabayeva has also enjoyed a meteoric rise in fortune under the president’s watchful eye. After retiring from gymnastics in 2005, she became an MP in his United Russia Party.
Last September she stood down and — despite her youth and relative lack of experience — was made chairman of a major pro-Kremlin media group.
There have been rumours that Kabayeva has had at least one child with Putin, although she denied being a mother in January 2011 in a cover-story interview with Russian Vogue, claiming that the little boy living with her was her nephew.
Recently there have been more suggestions of Kabayeva’s place in the president’s heart.
At last year’s Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, she carried the Olympic flame aloft while an approving Putin looked on, even though at the peak of her career she was banned for a drugs transgression.
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Putin, pictured horse riding bare-chested in Siberia, is said to take hot and cold baths followed by gym sessions to hone his athletic figure
Several months before that, Russian state television broadcast a flattering documentary to mark the vivacious Kabayeva’s 30th birthday. While no questioner dared to mention Putin by name, she spoke coquettishly of a man whom ‘I love very much’.
Pressed for his identity, she giggled and twiddled her hair before answering: ‘You’ve managed to ask that question. Well done.’
And in December last year, at around the time Kabayeva was spotted purchasing her late-night coffee under armed guard, Putin tantalisingly revealed in an interview that he was in a relationship in which he ‘loves’ and ‘is loved’.
But still there has been no admission that the object of his affections is Kabayeva.
It was in spring 2008 that a small Russian newspaper, the Moskovsky Korrespondent, published the first story linking the pair, incorrectly suggesting that the politician had already divorced Lyudmila and that his second wedding was imminent.
As a result, the owner of the paper, oligarch Alexander Lebedev, who later bought the London Evening Standard and the Independent, was forced to close the title down.
But reports of Putin’s alleged romance continued to emerge. In July 2008 another newspaper claimed that Kabayeva had pulled out of a TV ice show extravaganza ‘because of her pregnancy’. The report subsequently vanished from internet databases.
Other potential pieces of evidence for her pregnancy are flight records from 2009 which show that Kabayeva flew with two of Putin’s most trusted friends from Prague to Sochi. One was Dmitry Gorelov, a former Red Army doctor, who was granted the title of ‘honoured healthcare practitioner of the Russian Federation’ by Putin in a 2000 presidential decree.
Kabayeva gave birth to a son by Putin, named Dmitry, in 2009, according to reports in the New York Post. A daughter is said to have been born in 2012.
Then came the Putins’ divorce announcement — which raised further questions about why, having refused to discuss his private life for so long, the President was suddenly, if briefly, being so open.
Some commentators believe that it was simply becoming too difficult to stop the infidelity rumours affecting his image.
One popular Russian political blogger, Leonid Volkov, believes that Putin wanted to erase the image of an unfaithful husband. ‘I’ve heard many taxi drivers say it many times: “If he’s cheating on his wife, it means he’s deceiving the country”,’ he says.
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Putin's ex-wife Lyudmila (pictured together in 2011) once described him as an unemotional ‘vampire’ who had ‘sucked all the juices’ out of her
Others say that it was Mrs Putin who ultimately forced her husband’s hand, remaining at his side only long enough to allow him to win a second term as president without rocking the boat.
According to journalist Kseniya Sobchak, who claims to be a confidante of Mrs Putin, the split was ‘definitely orchestrated’ by Lyudmila. ‘I’m sure that she pushed him and I’m sure she had wanted for a while to end the strange, dubious position they were in.’
Without a doubt, Lyudmila had always been a reluctant First Lady, once revealing in a rare interview that she cried when Putin became president, saying: ‘My private life had ended with all this.’
In March 1980, when they met in what was then Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), farmer’s daughter Lyudmila Shkrebneva was an air hostess — pretty, slim and blonde — and Vladimir Putin was a KGB operative. Although he told Lyudmila he was, like his father, working for the police, she found out the truth from a friend 18 months later.
What she saw in Putin, a man she has readily admitted is emotionally cold, is sometimes hard to see. When they began dating, he often left her waiting in dingy subway stations, on the brink of tears, for as long as 90 minutes. ‘I would nearly cry out of humiliation,’ she said in a rare interview with the author of the book Vladimir Putin: Road To Power.
He's a vampire who sucked all the life out of me
‘It wasn’t instantaneous passion or love at first sight,’ she recalled of their three-year courtship. ‘For the first time in my life, I fell in love gradually.’
They married in 1983 in a state ceremony, then a traditional Russian Orthodox ceremony, but life as Mrs Putin proved challenging.
The early years of their marriage were spent in East Germany, where Putin was posted as a KGB agent from 1985 to 1990, posing as director of the Soviet-German cultural centre in Dresden.
It seems Putin’s view of a wife’s role was far from enlightened.
Lyudmila told her husband’s biographer that, while seven months pregnant with the couple’s first daughter, she was left to carry heavy shopping up several flights of stairs to their apartment.
While photographs from those years reveal a semblance of normal family life, that was to last only a few years as Putin’s political ambitions took over in the early 1990s.
Lyudmila, meanwhile, threw herself into raising her daughters and taught German at Leningrad State University.
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Last week, a TV documentary which aired in Germany, alleged the Russian leader is terrified of getting old
But while Putin shows no signs of wanting to relinquish a grip on power not seen since Soviet times, Lyudmila proved to be a reluctant consort, despite the untold wealth that her husband’s position has brought.
Putin officially earns about £90,000 a year but is said to be one of the richest men in the world, with an oil-backed fortune worth several billion. He enjoys astonishing presidential perks, with access to 20 residences including a lavishly restored Tsarist palace in the Gulf of Finland and a ski lodge in the Caucasus mountains, as well as a fleet of 43 aircraft, 700 cars and four luxury yachts.
Yet Lyudmila once described her husband as an unemotional ‘vampire’ who had ‘sucked all the juices’ out of her.
Of the couple’s daughters, Masha, 29, and Katya, 28, almost nothing is known. They went to university in Saint Petersburg under false names.
After the shooting down in July of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, widely attributed to Moscow-backed Ukrainian rebels, a Dutch tabloid claimed that Masha was living in the Netherlands with her Dutch partner. Dozens of reporters flocked to the luxury block where she was said to be, to find that she had disappeared (if she was ever there).
Since the Putins’ divorce, almost nothing has been seen or heard of Lyudmila.
Putin is afraid of physical decay, he is afraid of ageing
But if the President hoped to end speculation about his private life by announcing his divorce, he must be disappointed that the rumour mill is turning faster than ever.
In Russian media circles there is permanent speculation about when — and if — Putin will introduce Kabayeva to the world as his wife.
For a time it was believed that this would happen at the Winter Olympics last year and that Kabayeva, who was wearing a wedding ring, would appear not only as one of Russia’s most famous athletes but as the love of their leader’s life.
But the long-awaited announcement never came.
Instead, Putin’s entourage continue to promote his ‘monk-like’ image as a bachelor devoted to his country.
‘There is no place for family affairs in his life,’ says his spokesman Dmitry Peskov. ‘It’s only about the duties and responsibility that he has as head of the state.’
Others suspect that, as relations with the West become more strained, Putin does not want his ‘hard man’ reputation to be softened by talk of love.
Whatever the truth, it seems he will continue to keep a tight lid on affairs of the heart, hiding his emotions behind that ultra-smooth face.
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· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
- Politician Boris Nemtsov was killed in front of his girlfriend on Friday night
- The 55-year-old was a staunch critic of Vladimir Putin and his government
- Critics have assigned blame to the Russian President for Nemtsov's death
- Hundreds gathered at the site in central Moscow protesting 'je suis Boris'
- They claim the murder was an attack on free speech like Charlie Hebdo
- Putin described the killing as 'vile' and has taken control of investigation
- World leaders demanded transparency as inquiries into death continue
Published: 17:30 EST, 27 February 2015 | Updated: 14:15 EST, 28 February 2015
Hundreds of protesters have gathered at the scene where Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was murdered to name Vladimir Putin as the culprit of his death.
Critics held up signs reading 'we are all Nemtsov' this afternoon to claim the 55-year-old had been murdered for openly criticising the Russian President in a similar attack on free speech to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has blamed the Kremlin for Mr Nemtsov's death, alleging politicians were afraid of a report the former deputy prime minister was due to share publicly.
The findings are said to link Russia to the Ukrainian crisis which has seen thousands of people slaughtered after separatist rebels and military forces clashed.
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Hundreds of people gathered at the site where Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on Friday night with critics claiming Vladimir Putin is to blame for the opposition politician's death
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Among mounds of flowers and candles left on the bridge in central Moscow are signs reading 'Je suis Boris' and 'We are all Nemtsov' in Russian claiming the 55-year-old was killed for openly criticising Putin in an attack on free speech
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Mr Nemtsov, 55, (right) had been out for dinner with his Ukranian model girlfriend Anna Duritskaya, 23, (left) in the hours before his death. The couple had been dating for several years, according to reports
Speaking of the report Mr Nemtsov had been working on, President Poroshenko said: 'Somebody was afraid of this, Boris wasn't afraid. Killers and executors were afraid.'
Meanwhile opposition activists also blamed the Russian President for his death, claiming they were in 'no doubt' it was politically motivated.
'I have no doubt this was a political killing. The only threat to his life came from his political activity. He had no foes other than political ones.',' said Ilya Yashin.
On Saturday hundreds of people gathered to lay flowers and messages of support at the scene where he was killed after enjoying dinner with his 23-year-old girlfriend.
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Among placards left on mounds of flowers were some reading 'je suis Boris', 'Putin killed my friend' and 'we are all Nemtsov'.
Critics linked his killing to the deaths of journalists at the French political magazine, Charlie Hebdo, who were slaughtered by Islamic extremists after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
In the days before his death, Mr Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, said he feared being killed by the Russian leader.
'I'm afraid Putin will kill me. I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine. I couldn't dislike him more,' he said in an interview with Russia's Sobesednik news website.
He also revealed his 86-year-old mother's fears that he was be assassinated because of his outspoken views.
'"When will you stop cursing Putin? He'll kill you for that." She was completely serious,' he added.
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Protesters held up signs reading 'Putin killed by friend' in Russian at the scene where Mr Nemtsov was killed
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A growing mound of flowers was left at the scene as mourners visited on Saturday. Critics have blamed the Russian President for Mr Nemtsov's death, alleging it was 'politically motivated'
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Russian investigators said it was following several lines of inquiry but world leaders have demanded transparency as the investigation into Mr Nemtsov's death continues
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Mourners wept at the scene on Saturday after critics blamed the Russian President for the popular politician's murder
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The father-of-four was shot four times by assailants in a white car as he walked across a bridge over the Moskva River
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (left) said he thought Mr Nemtsov was killed because of a report he had been working on which incriminated Putin (right) in the Ukrainian crisis
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Russian police officers stand next to traces of Boris Nemtsov's body on a bridge in central Moscow
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The white car (pictured) that carried the assassins has reportedly been found by police not far from where the leader was murdered, according to REN TV news channel
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Thousands visited the site where Boris Nemtsov was killed on Friday at around midnight, pictured is St Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin walls seen in the background
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Medics carry the body of Boris Nemtsov. The politician was highly critical of the government's inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin's policy on Ukraine, which has strained Russia-West ties to a degree unseen since Cold War times
She received a telegram from the Russian president which described her son's murder as 'vile and cynical'.
'We will do everything to ensure that the perpetrators of this vile and cynical crime and those who stand behind them are properly punished,' it said.
'Please accept my deepest condolences in connection with this irreparable loss. I sincerely share your sorrow.
'Boris Nemtsov has left his mark in the history of Russia, in its political and public life. He occupied significant posts in a difficult time of transition in this country. He always openly and honestly voiced and upheld his views.'
He has now assumed 'personal control' of the investigation and his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the shooting could be a 'provocation' for the planned protest rally.
'SHOT 4 TIMES, ONCE FOR EACH CHILD HE LEAVES'
Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and former chess champion Garry Kasparov last night tweeted: 'Devastated to hear of the brutal murder of my long-time opposition colleague Boris Nemtsov. Shot 4 times, once for each child he leaves.
'Boris's quality no longer fit Putin's Russia. He always believed Russia could change from inside without violence; after 2012, I disagreed.
'When we argued, Boris would tell me I was too hasty, that in Russia you had to live a long time to see change. Now he'll never see it. RIP.'
Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also a critic of Putin, was shot dead in a lift in October 2006, and former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned by Russians in London and died a month later.
Some also believe that Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch and another critic of Putin, may have been murdered after he was found hanged in the bathroom of his Ascot home in March 2013.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it was following several lines of inquiry including the possibility someone from Mr Nemtsov's own party had carried out the killing in order to raise support for a forthcoming anti-government rally.
Investigators also said the 'meticulously planned' assassination may also have possible links to Ukraine events as well as Islamist extremist attacks.
But supporters of Mr Nemtsov maintained the Kremlin was to blame for his killing which came just days before he was due to attend the Spring March opposition protest.
Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian prime minister now also in opposition, said the country is 'rolling into the abyss'.
'In the 21st century, a leader of the opposition is being demonstratively shot just outside the walls of the Kremlin. This country is rolling into the abyss,' he said.
In the hours leading up to Mr Nemtsov's death, the politician had been to a luxury restaurant with the model at GUM, a department store in Red Square.
They had walked together in the direction of an apartment and Mr Nemtsov was targeted at he walked across a bridge over the Moskva River at around midnight on Friday.
The car that carried the assassins has reportedly been found by police not far from where the leader was murdered, according to REN TV news channel.
Officers are investigating the car, which has allegedly been identified as a Lada Priora with registration plates from Ingushetia, a republic of Russia in the North Caucasus region.
Preliminary results show that the politician was killed from a Makarov pistol and experts found six 9-mm cartridge cases at the scene.
Mikhail Kirtsev, who arrived at the scene before police cordoned off the area, said there were bullet wounds in Mr Nemtsov's back, and one on the left side of his body, by his lower ribs.
'Maybe he had time to turn around,' Kirtsev said, adding that there was little visible blood.
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A man mourns as he lays flowers at the site of murder of Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow
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An unidentified assassin shot Mr Nemtsov (above, in 2010 at an anti-Kremlin march) four times while he was walking with a woman near the Kremlin
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The married father-of-four was shot four times by assailants in a white car as the couple walked across a bridge over the Moskva River
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Russian opposition leaders Ilya Yashin (left) and Ksenia Sobchak (right), arrive at the scene. They alleged he was killed for openly implicating Putin in the Ukrainian crisis
WORLD LEADERS CONDEMN 'ODIOUS' ASSASSINATION OF BORIS NEMTSOV
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British Prime Minister David Cameron said the Russian opposition leader dedicated his life to speaking up for the Russian people
Western leaders have condemned the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov are are pressing the Kremlin to ensure the killing is investigated thoroughly.
Ukraine's president, Petro O Poroshenko, wrote on his Facebook page that Mr. Nemtsov had been a 'bridge between Ukraine and Russia' and that the 'murderers' shot has destroyed it. I think this is not an accident.'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she 'appreciates the courage of the former deputy prime minister, who repeatedly expressed publicly his criticism of government policy.'
She called on Putin to ensure that the murder is cleared up and the perpetrators brought to justice.'
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: 'Mr. Nemtsov will be remembered as a fearless advocate of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Russia.
'A leader unafraid to voice essential truths, even in the face of violent intimidation, he was also a prominent opponent of Russia's aggression in Ukraine and the illegal occupation of Crimea.'
David Cameron said: 'Boris Nemtsov was a man of courage and conviction.
'His life was dedicated to speaking up tirelessly for the Russian people, to demanding their right to democracy and liberty under the rule of law, and to an end to corruption.
'He did so without fear, and never gave in to intimidation.'
French President Francois Hollande also denounced the 'odious assassination' of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow.
The killing came one year after the Russian annexation of Crimea in a special operation by Russian special forces. The politician was a strong and outspoken critic of Putin's policy on Ukraine.
Kiev, the West and some Russians accuse Moscow of sending troops to support separatist rebels who have risen up in east Ukraine, an accusation Russia has denied.
Just hours before the opposition leader's death Putin had declared 27 February a new 'professional holiday' for special operation soldiers in his armed forces and secret services.
Political analyst Sergey Parkhomenko alluding to this new holiday said that the murder was carefully planned and a 'present' for someone.
'There is a war going on here. If someone thinks otherwise... we're now living in a country that is fully-fledged in a war.'
'Nemtsov's murder is a terrible tragedy for Russia,' said ex-finance minister Alexei Kudrin, a Putin ally.
Britain has said it will follow closely investigations into the killing.
Prime Minister, David Cameron, said: 'I am shocked and sickened by the callous murder of Boris Nemtsov as he walked in the heart Moscow last night.
'This despicable act must be fully, rapidly and transparently investigated, and those responsible brought to justice.
'Boris Nemtsov was a man of courage and conviction. His life was dedicated to speaking up tirelessly for the Russian people, to demanding their right to democracy and liberty under the rule of law, and to an end to corruption.
'He did so without fear, and never gave in to intimidation. He was greatly admired in Britain, not least by his friend Lady Thatcher, who visited him in Russia and who would have been appalled by today's news. The courage of Nemtsov's life contrasts with the utter cowardice of his murder.
'I extend my condolences to Boris Nemtsov's family and friends. The Russian people have been deprived of a champion of their rights.
'Boris Nemtsov is dead. But the values he stood for will never die.'
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said the politician may have been murdered because he planned to disclose evidence of Russia's involvement in Ukraine's separatist conflict.
'He said he would reveal persuasive evidence of the involvement of Russian armed forces in Ukraine. Someone was very afraid of this ... They killed him,' Poroshenko said.
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A man cries at the spot, where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead, near St-Basil's Cathedral, in the centre of Moscow
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Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev (centre) is shown the place where Boris Nemtsov was killed in central Moscow
US President Barack Obama has also condemned the 'brutal murder', the White House National Security Council said on Twitter.
The White House called on the Russian government to conduct a 'prompt, impartial and transparent investigation' and to 'ensure those responsible are brought to justice.'
Obama said he met Mr Nemtsov in Moscow in 2009 when the Russian was willing to 'share his candid views with me'.
'We offer our sincere condolences to his family and to the Russian people, who have lost one of the most dedicated and eloquent defenders of their rights,' he said.
Police cordoned off the area where Mr Nemtsov was shot and an ambulance was nearby.
'Nemtsov B.E. died at 2340 hours as a result of four shots in the back,' an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said.
Mr Nemtsov, 55, first gained an international profile after being spotted by former British premier Margaret Thatcher as a future leader of Russia, and she praised his market reforms after visiting Nizhny Novgorod where as governor in the early 1990s he led spearheaded reforms.
Later he rose to become deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, but he was always opposed as too Western and liberal by hardliners.
He had angered the government two years ago when he charged that billions of dollars had been stolen from funds designated for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, his home town.
He blamed 'Putin's friends' for the alleged embezzlement, which he described as 'a real threat to Russia's national security.'
Putin's former premier Mikhail Kasyanov, now an opposition leader, said: 'The comments are very easy: the bastards.
'They killed my friend in Moscow city centre, near the Kremlin wall.'
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Mr Nemtsov had publicly expressed concerns for his life earlier this month and was outspoken in his opposition to Putin, pictured at a media rally in Moscow in 2012
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President Putin meets the leaders of the State Duma lower house of parliament, including Boris Nemtsov (far right) in 2002
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Mr Nemtsov and Putin discuss the prospects of administrative reform at the Kremlin in July 2000
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Boris Nemtsov (right) with Presidents Boris Yeltsin (centre) of Russia and Geidar Aliyev of Azerbaijan (left) after a signing ceremony for a basic treaty of friendship, cooperation and security in the Kremlin in July 1997
He warned: 'This is a demonstration for all of us, for all open-minded people of Russia. How freedom of speech is finished in today's Russia.
'Could we have imagined an opposition leader killed by the Kremlin wall yesterday? We couldn't. The country is rolling to the abyss. It is terrible.'
His death was 'payback for the fact that Boris consistently, for many, many years fought for Russia to be a free democratic country.'
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warned against jumping to conclusions.
'Certain forces will try to use the killing to their own advantage. They are thinking how to get rid of Putin,' he said.
Another key opposition figure Vladimir Ryzhkov said: 'I'm absolutely shocked. It's the first case of political murder in many years, a slaying of a politician of federal level.'
He said the killing was an 'extraordinary, shocking event' and that 'political responsibility for what happened is with the authorities.'
Mr Nemtsov had publicly expressed concerns for his life earlier this month and was outspoken in his opposition to Putin.
He was highly critical of the government's inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin's policy on Ukraine, which has strained Russia-West ties to a degree unseen since Cold War times.
He helped organise street protests and wrote extensively about official corruption. He had been due to take part on Sunday in the first big opposition protest in months in the Russian capital.
The assassination also comes after Mr Nemtsov criticised Putin in the Financial Times on Thursday.
The politician had said residents he met in a town northeast of Moscow had complained about the country's economic problems.
He added: 'They believed that the embargo on imported foods is America's fault, and they were surprised when I told them no, that was not Obama, it was Putin.
'This is what we need to make people aware of: the crisis, that's Putin.'
BORIS NEMTSOV: A LIBERAL REFORMER AND FIERCE PUTIN CRITIC
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Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in Moscow at the age of 55
Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in Moscow at the age of 55.
His 87-year-old mother Dina had a premonition that her son would be killed, according to the politician.
He told earlier this month how his mother warned him: 'When will you stop cursing Putin? He'll kill you for that.'
Nemtsov studied physics at State University of Gorky and earned a PhD in Physics and Mathematics.
In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, Nemtsov organised a protest movement in his hometown, which prevented the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the region.
The liberal reformer rose to prominence under Boris Yeltsin and became a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin.
Nemtsov first gained an international profile after being spotted by former British premier Margaret Thatcher as a future leader of Russia.
She praised his market reforms after visiting Nizhny Novgorod where as governor in the early 1990s he led spearheaded reforms.
The father-of-four, 55, was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998 during Boris Yeltsin's presidency.
He was sentenced to 15 days in jail in January 2011 after being arrested at a New Year's Eve protest rally for 'disobedience towards police'.
The politician founded a number of opposition movements after leaving the Russian parliament in 2003 and he had served as the co-chair of the opposition Republican Party of Russia - People's Freedom Party since 2012.
He was a prominent and vocal critic of Mr Putin and wrote a number of reports in recent years linking Putin and his inner circle to corruption.
It has been reported that Nemtsov angered Putin's government two years ago when he charged that billions of dollars had been stolen from funds designated for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, his hometown.
He has written more than 60 academic publications about quantum physics, thermodynamics and acoustics and designed n of antennas for space apparatuses.
Jewish advocacy website AJC named Nemtsov as one of the most prominent Jews in Russia thanks to his mother's heritage.
In his 1997 memoir, The Provincial Man, Nemstov revealed that he was baptised Russian Orthodox in secret.
He leaves behind his wife Raisa Akhmetovna and four children.
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The former research officer of the Gorky Radiophysical Research Institute with his daughter Zhanna in 1986
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Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin (left) and his first Vice Premier Nemtsov during a visit to Krasnoyarsk
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Nemtsov studied physics at State University of Gorky and earned a PhD in Physics and Mathematics, pictured during his time studying
The murdered politician was known as an economic reformer during his time as governor of one of Russia's biggest cities, Nizhny Novgorod.
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told the radio station that he did not believe that Mr Nemtsov's death would in any way serve Putin's interests.
'But the atmosphere of hatred towards alternative thinkers that has formed over the past year, since the annexation of Crimea, may have played its role,' he said, referring to the surge of intense and officially endorsed nationalist discourse increasingly prevalent in Russia since it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Nemtsov, who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998 during Boris Yeltsin's presidency, was sentenced to 15 days in jail in January 2011 after being arrested at a New Year's Eve protest rally for 'disobedience towards police'.
One of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders, he was among 68 people arrested at an unsanctioned rally at a central Moscow square.
Nemtsov and other protesters had gathered on the opposite side of the square from an authorised protest.
He was sentenced for failure to follow police orders, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported at the time.
A year ago, Putin had predicted a high profile opposition killing, claiming his deeply divided foes would kill on of their own number.
'They are looking for a so-called sacrificial victim among some prominent figures,' said Putin. 'They will knock him off, I beg your pardon, and then blame the authorities for that.'
Nemtsov hit back at Putin for the statement, declaring:
'If the head of the federal government, who controls all intelligence agencies, makes a public statement that he has information about such a provocation and such a crime, he must do everything to prevent it and not just publicly scare Russians.'
He warned: 'If the authorities fail to do everything to prevent such a scenario,' Nemtsov said then, 'they will become accomplices in this grave crime being plotted.'
Nemtsov had accused Putin of turning Russia back to the Cold War.
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British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook ((left) and former Russian Vice-Premier Nemtsov meeting in Moscow
'He believes that everything he did was absolutely right... he is not critical about himself at all. He says that he is right and the world is wrong. Sometimes I believe that he is mad,' he said.
When he died he was allegedly preparing to reveal evidence in a report entitled 'Putin, War' of Russia's direct involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.
Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the opposition Yabloko party, called the killing an 'act of political terrorism'.
'This is a challenge not just to the opposition but to the leadership of the country.'
Nemtsov will be buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow on March 3.
Amnesty International said the case must not be allowed to be added to a 'list of unsolved political murders and attacks' in Russia.
Deputy director for Europe and Central Asia Denis Krivosheev said: 'Boris Nemtsov was one of Russia's most prominent and courageous political activists and was a prisoner of conscience in the past when he was arrested in connection with peaceful street protest.
'He was, with others, actively planning a large opposition demonstration in Moscow on Sunday.
'In the current crackdown on freedoms of expression, assembly and association, this is a cold-blooded murder of one of those free voices whom the authorities have so actively sought to silence.
'There is already a list of unsolved political murders and attacks in Russia, the investigations of which are under the 'personal control' of senior Russian politicians. We cannot allow Boris Nemtsov to become just another name on this list.'
'POLITICALLY MOTIVATED' ATTACKS DURING PUTIN'S LEADERSHIP
November 1998: Less than four months after Putin took over takes at the KGB, Galina Starovoitova, the most prominent pro-democracy Kremlin critic was murdered.
The politician, who was State Duma deputy at the time, was shot to death in the stairwell of her home in central St Petersburg in what appeared to be a 'politically motivated' attack.
March 2000: Putin was elected as leader and Russian ordered attacks in Chechnya. Opposition leaders, especially those who reported on the conflict in Chechnya were killed.
Reporters Igor Domnikov, Sergey Novikov, Iskandar Khatloni, Sergey Ivanov and Adam Tepsurgayev were all killed in 2000 alone.
April 2003: Sergei Yushenkov, co-chairman of the Liberal Russia political party was gunned down at the entrance of his Moscow apartment block.
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Viktor Yushchenko (left), anti-Russian candidate for the presidency of the Ukraine, was poisoned by Dioxin in 2004 and Galina Starovoitova, the most prominent pro-democracy Kremlin critic, was shot in 1998
He had been serving as the vice chair of the group known as the 'Kovalev Commission' which was formed to investigate charges that Putin's KGB had planted support for the war in Chechnya.
July 2003: Yuri Shchekochikhin, a vocal opposition journalist and member of the Russian Duma and the Kovalev Commission contracted a mysterious illness.
Witnesses said he complained about fatigue, and red blotches began to appear on his skin. They said: 'His internal organs began collapsing one by one. Then he lost almost all his hair.'
June 2004: Nikolai Girenko, a prominent human rights defender, Professor of Ethnology and expert on racism and discrimination in the Russian Federation is shot dead in his home in St Petersburg.
July 2004: Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition Forbes magazine, was shot and killed in Moscow.
Forbes reported that at the time of his death, Paul was believed to have been investigating a complex web of money laundering involving a Chechen reconstruction fund and the Kremlin.
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Former spy Alexander Litvinenko (pictured) was killed in 2006, leading to a clouding of relations between London and Moscow.
September 2004: Viktor Yushchenko, anti-Russian candidate for the presidency of the Ukraine, was poisoned by Dioxin.
September 2006: Andrei Kozlov, First Deputy Chairman of Russia's Central Bank, who strove to stamp out money laundering was shot and killed in Moscow.
November 2006: Former spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed in 2006, leading to a clouding of relations between London and Moscow.
The 43-year-old had been an officer with the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, but he fled to Britain where he became a fierce critic of the Kremlin.
October 2006: Anna Politkovskaya, author of countless books exposing Russian human rights violations in Chechnya and articles attacking Vladimir Putin as a dictator was killed in Moscow.
She had written: 'I have wondered a great deal why I have so got it in for Putin. What is it that makes me dislike him so much as to feel moved to write a book about him?'
January 2009: Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer, was shot after leaving a news conference less than half a mile from the Kremlin in January 2009.
He was appealing the early release of Yuri Budanov, a Russian military officer convicted of killing a young Chechen woman.
July 2009: Leading Russian human rights journalist and activist Natalya Estemirova was abducted in front of her home in Grozny, Chechnya, taken across the border into Ingushetia where she was shot and dumped in a roadside gutter.
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An impromptu shrine appeared on the site in Moscow where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed. Among those paying their respects were opposition politician Anatoly Chubais and U.S. Ambassador John Tefft. (Reuters)
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History of opposition to Vladimir Putin seen as most likely reason for death of former deputy prime minister
Moscow police are on the hunt for the killers of Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition politician who was gunned down in the shadow of the Kremlin’s towers late on Friday night, but his friends and political partners say they fear the real killers will never be brought to justice.
Many of those close to Nemtsov believe the 55-year-old former deputy prime minister was killed either for his opposition to the Kremlin, or by shady nationalist forces reacting to a long propaganda campaign on state-controlled television calling the political opposition traitors.
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Russian investigators said they were probing motives into the killing of prominent opposition leader Boris Nemtsov that include possible links to the Ukraine conflict, Islamic extremism or a plan to destabilize the country.
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