Two charged with Nemtsov killing include former Chechen policeman

A Russian court charged two men with the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, including a former police officer from Chechnya who confessed to his involvement in what investigators said was a contract killing. Four others denied any connection to the killing of Nemtsov, who was shot four times in the back on February 27 while walking with his girlfriend along a bridge near the Kremlin in a brazen assassination that has sent shivers through the country’s opposition.

I knew Zaur Dadayev as a true Russian patriot… He was one of the bravest and worthiest soldiers of his regiment.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov

The men are all from the volatile northern Caucasus region where Russia has fought two devastating wars against Chechen separatists and where security forces continue to clash with Islamist insurgents. Investigators have suggested Nemtsov’s killers wanted to destabilise Russia while Kremlin-loyal politicians have referred to a Western plot. However, as in a string of other killings of Russian opposition figures, officials have yet to shed light on who might have ordered the late-night murder of the 55-year-old Nemtsov, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin.

Nemstov Europe