What Was Behind Nemtsov’s Murder? Russian Teenager Struggles to Resolve the Mystery

The murder of Boris Nemtsov in February 2015 shocked the international community and made the headlines of all major news agencies. Although his political views and actions caused mixed reaction among Russians, the way he was murdered shocked the entire nation and sparked numerous theories about possible motives behind the assassination.

By Anastasia Fistashka, Afanasiy Pervomaisky

What was that? A murder by contract? A political provocation? An act of revenge by some enemies? Or maybe even a crime of passion? The mystery behind the sudden murder of one of the major representatives of the Russian political opposition remains unresolved.

Boris Nemtsov was shot on the night of February 27, 2015 while walking on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Central Moscow. On October 9, he would have turned 56.

The investigation into the case was launched right after the incident and resulted in the arrests of five suspects, all of them from North Caucasus. However, almost no additional information on the case has been released since spring 2015 and it remains unclear whether any further investigation has been made at all.

Russian Accent came across a group of political activists on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge whose goal is not to let the Russian public forget about the Nemtsov case and call for the government to continue investigation.

“Our goal is to prevent that Nemtsov’s murder becomes forgotten among other unresolved murders,” said Alina, the member of the new activist movement in Russia designed to generate public awareness, boost investigation into the crime and collect people’s signatures to save a memorial at the murder site and install new ones across the city.

Alina is only 14-years old and goes to a secondary school. However, despite her young age, the girl has an active political position and is ready to defend it.

“The murder of Boris has made a great impression on me. I did not know him personally, but heard a lot about him before his death. These were often not very good things, but it doesn’t matter, because it was the blatant case of murder,” Alina said, admitting that the crime terrified her and that she could not just ignore and forget about it.

Boris Nemtsov was a Russian liberal politician well-known for his disapproval of Vladimir Putin’s policies. He sharply criticized what he had viewed as an extremely authoritarian and undemocratic regime, regularly releasing reports accusing the Russian President and his government of the flourishing corruption.

 “We want to continue Boris’ job, we want to release further compromising reports and provide the Russian population with alternative information,” Alina said, adding that the movement she belongs to, however, has a lot of opponents among Russian residents, most of whom support the current Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.

The girl said a lot of people disapprove of her actions, criticizing and sometimes even verbally attacking her while Alina is canvassing for signatures near the memorial at the Nemtsov murder site.

Despite these hardships, Alina hopes that justice eventually will be served and the Russian law-enforcement services would continue their efforts to find those behind the murder.

“I think this is a political murder,” Alina said. “I am not an expert in criminal trials, but I think it would be great if the police interrogates all witnesses and suspects, and does not stop if the traces of the crime would lead to a high-ranking official,” the girl added.

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