In the 72 hours since Boris Nemtsov was murdered, the Kremlin has floated numerous explanations

for his death. Vladimir Putin has called his killing a provocation. Its a strange word. What Putin
means is that whoever murdered Nemtsov did so to discredit the state. Since the state is the primary
victim here, the state cant be responsible, this logic runs.
Others have blamed Islamist extremists. Or Ukrainian fascists. Putins ally Ramzan Kadyrov,
Chechnyas thuggish president, has accused western spy agencies, an old favourite. The muckraking website Lifenews.ru, which has close links to the FSB, Putins former spy agency, has
pointed the finger at Nemtsovs colourful love life. At the time of his murder, he was walking past
the Kremlin with a Ukrainian model, it noted.
The only explanation not being given in Moscow for Nemtsovs killing late on Friday evening is the
blindingly obvious one: that he was murdered for his opposition activities. Specifically, for his very
public criticism of Putins secret war in Ukraine in which at least 6,000 people have been killed
over the past year, and which according to his friends he had been about to expose.
Nemtsov had been one of few Russian liberals brave enough to denounce Putins extensive
undercover military support for the separatist rebels in Ukraine. He described the way Putin had
annexed Crimea, using masked special forces, as illegal, though he recognised a majority of
Crimeans wanted to join Russia. In his final interview, on Friday, he denounced Russias president
as a pathological liar.

Boris Nemtsov: tens of thousands march in

memory of murdered politician
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In the interview with the liberal radio station Echo of Moscow, Nemtsov seemed in good spirits. He
was on waspish form. He attacked the Kremlins dead-end politics and mishandling of the
economy. Nemtsovs criticism of the Russian state was longstanding. Since being forced out of
Russian parliamentary politics a decade ago, Nemtsov had founded several anti-Putin movements.
With state media under the Kremlins thumb, though, Nemtsov was banned from TV. He was on the
margins.
What changed was the war of Ukraine and the unleashing on Russia federal TV channels of a wave
of nationalist hysteria and hatred. State TV regularly branded Nemtsov a fifth columnist. In the
wake of his murder, NTV quietly shelved another anti-Nemtsov hatchet job, entitled Anatomy of a
Protest, due to be screened on Sunday night. By 2015, most other Russian opposition leaders were
in exile (the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the ex-chess champion Gary Kasparov) or in
jail (the anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny).
All of this made Nemtsov especially vulnerable. Hours before his murder, moreover, Nemtsov said
he had documentary proof that undercover Russian soldiers were fighting and dying in eastern
Ukraine. It was an assertion borne out by a steady flow of coffins returning in the dead of night
from the war zone in Donetsk and Luhansk. According to his friend Ilya Yashin, Nemtsov was
preparing an explosive essay on the subject.
Nemtsov had written dissenting pamphlets before. One of them, Putin: A Reckoning, accused
Russias president and his circle of massive personal corruption. Another targeted Yuri Luzhkov,
Moscows former mayor, later toppled. But this new one went to the heart of the Kremlins big lie.
At the weekend, police seized Nemtsovs hard drives. There seems little prospect his last polemic
will now ever be published.

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Demonstrators crowded into central Moscow in memory of Nemtsov on Sunday. Photograph: TASS
/ Barcroft Media
Instead, the Kremlin seems to be moving towards old-fashioned cover-up. On Monday, the
authorities implausibly announced that the CCTV cameras next to the spot where Nemtsov was shot
dead were not working. The politician had had a late dinner with his girlfriend, Ukrainian Anna
Duritskaya, in GUM, an upmarket shopping centre. They strolled together across the cobbles of Red
Square, then walked past the Kremlin. They started crossing a bridge over the Moscow river. It was
11.30pm.
According to Duritskaya, someone emerged from a stairwell immediately behind them. The
assassin shot Nemtsov six times in the back. Four of the bullets struck him, one in the heart; he died
instantly. The killer then escaped in a waiting white car, driven by an accomplice. The car
disappeared into the night. Duritskaya told the liberal TV channel Rain she hadnt been able to see
the person who fired the fatal shots. Investigators recovered the 9mm bullets. They didnt find a
murder weapon.
The location, though, told its own chilling story: an opponent of Putin lying dead in the street, under
the walls of Russian power, and next to the countrys most famous landmark, St Basils cathedral.
The visual scene is perfect for TV. It seems extraordinary that a former deputy prime minister could
be murdered here, outside the Russian equivalent of the White House or the Houses of Parliament,
with the shooter apparently able to drive off.
Officials have released one carefully curated CCTV shot taken from far away. A snowplough
obscures the moment when Nemtsov is shot. Like all major opposition figures, Nemtsov was under
surveillance by the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. The FSB expends enormous effort on
keeping track of its targets. On this occasion, however, an organisation known for its resources and
unlimited manpower seems to have lost track of him.
In recent months, Nemtsov had voiced growing fears that he might be killed. In an interview with
the FT last Monday, he said Putin was distinctly capable of murder, saying of him: He is a totally
amoral human being. Totally amoral. He is a Leviathan. Nemtsov went on: Putin is very
dangerous. He is more dangerous than the Soviets were. In the Soviet Union, there was at least a
system, and decisions were taken by the politburo. Decisions about war, decisions to kill people,
were not taken by Brezhnev alone, or by Andropov either, but thats how it works now.
We will probably never know who killed Boris Nemtsov. The Kremlin says its not to blame.
Despite this denial, its entirely possible the state ordered Nemtsovs appalling murder; equally
possible that shadowy nationalist forces decided to kill someone routinely derided as an American
spy. As many of Nemtsovs friends have pointed out, Putin deliberately fostered the atmosphere of
hysteria and hatred. It is this which allowed Nemtsov to be killed. So the moral responsibility rests
with him, they say.
Meanwhile, Putins comment that he is taking the investigation under his personal control doesnt
exactly inspire confidence. Rather, the Kremlins actions suggest that the chief goal now is to
confuse the Russian public. The numerous versions of Nemtsovs murder from love tiff to
Charlie Hebdo-inspired Islamists to provocation are part of a sophisticated postmodern media
strategy. How is one supposed to know which one is actually true?
In fact, the aim is to blur what is true with what is not, to the point that the truth disappears. Russia
Today, the Kremlin propaganda channel, uses the same methods for western audiences. Its boss,
Margarita Simonyan, argues that there is no such thing as truth, merely narrative. Russias narrative
is just as valid as the western narrative, she argues. In this cynical relativist world of swirling

competing versions, nothing is really true. And yet someone shot and killed Boris Nemtsov. He was
alive. Now he is dead.
Such methods have been used in previous cases where enemies of the Russian state have
mysteriously wound up dead. Its a long list. In October 2006, a gunman murdered the journalist
Anna Politkovskaya in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment building. In the wake of her killing,
Putin dismissed her as pretty much insignificant inside Russia, and merely famous in the west.
Last Friday, Dmitry Peskov, Putins press spokesman, echoed this. He suggested similarly that
Nemtsov was a marginal figure, scarcely more important than your average citizen.
Three weeks after Politkovskayas murder, two assassins from Moscow bumped off another wellknown critic of Putins, Alexander Litvinenko. Last month, a public inquiry into Litvinenkos 2006
murder opened at the high court in London. Here, at least, the British police were able to obtain a
mountain of evidence: CCTV footage showing Litvinenko at the Mayfair murder scene; call records
from the two suspects, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun; witnesses who were in a hotel bar when
Litvinenko swallowed half a cup of radioactive green tea.
The inquiry chairman, Sir Robert Owen, will announce his findings later. He has already indicated
that there is a prima facie case that this is a Russian state killing. The evidence backs up this
interpretation. Lugovoi and Kovtun poisoned Litvinenko with polonium-210, a rare isotope
typically made by a nuclear reactor. Once identified, it is easy to trace. Scotland Yard found a trail
of polonium which led from Moscow to London: on plane seats, hotel rooms, on the shisha pipe
(price 9) that Lugovoi smoked in a Moroccan bar.
Two former KGB agents allegedly killed Litvinenko, then, using the equivalent of a small nuclear
bomb. As with Nemtsov, Putin has denied involvement. In the meantime, Lugovoi has prospered.
He became a deputy in Russias state duma for an ultra-nationalist party. He has produced his own
versions of Litvinenkos killing, blaming it on MI6, Tony Blair and the late oligarch Boris
Berezovsky. Over the weekend, he popped up on Russias state Rossiya TV channel to share his
theories of Nemtsovs death.