Russia arrests two over Boris Nemtsov killing

Two suspects have been arrested over the killing of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated last week. Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, said Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev had been arrested and that both were from the Caucasus. It is not clear if either is believed to have fired the shots that killed the politician, who was reportedly working on a report about Russian military involvement in the eastern Ukraine conflict at the time of his death.

The necessary operational and investigative procedures are continuing.

Head of the FSB federal security service Alexander Bortnikov

Nemstov was shot four times in the back while walking with his girlfriend along a bridge just a short distance from the Kremlin in the centre of Moscow last Friday. The 55-year-old was a longtime Putin critic and renowned anti-corruption crusader who served as Boris Yeltsin’s first deputy prime minister in the 1990s. President Vladimir Putin called the killing a “provocation” that had brought disgrace upon the country, vowing that everything would be done to bring to justice those who committed a “vile and cynical murder.”

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