Opinions to Die For

On February 27th of this year, mere minutes before midnight, Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was gunned down on a bridge next to the Kremlin in central Moscow. The killers sped off in a white vehicle, but 5 were apprehended a little over a week after the assassination, and a sixth blew himself up with a grenade before he could be arrested. All the men are ethnic Chechens, but an extremist Islamist motive behind the attack has been strongly refuted. Zaur Dadayev has been identified as the brain behind the operation, but Dadayev himself claimed that he was tortured and that the police forced him to confess, and has subsequently retracted both his claims of torture and confession. International media reporting on the homicide and its ensuing investigation always includes “Putin’s opponent” along with Nemtsov’s name in the segment or article title, blatantly implying Putin was partially or directly responsible for Boris Nemtsov’s unfortunate end. The victim’s own daughter recently proclaimed her father was “the most powerful leader of the opposition in Russia” and a “fighter”. Indeed, the media has transformed Nemtsov into a sort of martyr-a rebel leader, someone who stood up to the infamous Putin, and a man who had opinions that he was ready to die for. These days, the western media regards anybody who is in opposition to Putin favorably. At the time of his death, Boris Nemtsov was working on a report that would prove the presence of the Russian military in Eastern Ukraine (even though such assertions have been vehemently denied). Less than three weeks before his assassination, Nemtsov admitted in an interview that he was afraid for his life. It seems like an open-and-shut case; Putin ordered the murder of his feared opponent Boris Nemtsov, and is now trying to cover it up. Except Putin never feared or had any reason to fear Boris Nemtsov, and the whole situation is much more complicated than that.

In the early 90’s, Boris Nemtsov was a young, bureaucrat from a small, provincial Russian town. He attracted the attention of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, and immediately entered his inner circle. Boris Yeltsin chose his favorites not based on their political capabilities or achievements, but based on personal preference, and it wasn’t very hard to understand why he had picked the charismatic and good-natured Nemtsov. For this reason, it’s not too farfetched to say that Boris Nemtsov was directly involved in ruling and exploiting the crumbling remains of the Soviet empire. Tons of people in Yeltsin’s inncer circle, along with Nemtsov and Yeltsin’s daughter amassed billions. Eventually, Yeltsin would publicly announce “I’m tired, I’m leaving.” and do everything in his power to pass on his position to Putin, who in return issued a decree that would protect Yeltsin and his family from any corruption charges. Once president, Putin swapped Yeltsin’s inner circle with his own cronies, which Boris Nemtsov was no longer a part of. Vladimir Putin followed in his predecessor’s footsteps and accumulated his own fortune, and Boris Nemtsov was left out and bitterly started his opposition campaign. Due to the fact Boris Nemtsov was an ordinary politician with no particular talent, most of his “opposition” took place in the provincial towns that he was from-far from Moscow, and Putin. In the past few years, Boris Nemtsov’s popularity level was extremely low, and many people did not know who he was. He lived a comfortable life with his young, model Ukranian girlfriend, and his murder left many wondering around the circumstances surrounding his death. Even though he was a forgotten political figure, his passing was a huge tragedy for the Russian people. The Russian media has a spectrum of theories and responses ranging from “Putin was responsible!” on the revolutionary TV channel “Rain” to theories that the West orchestrated the killing and make Putin the scapegoat. However, recently released information about Nemtsov may explain why he was even a murder target. Boris Nemtsov secretly cooperated with the United States, and assisted them in creating a list of Russian oligarchs and government officials to sanction. It is highly possible that one of the sanctioned victims had a vendetta against him, and decided to pursue it in the most lethal way.

I believe that Nemtsov should have been judged over 20 years ago when he was in power and the right hand of president Yeltsin, and billions of dollars poured into Western banks. Though his death is undoubtedly devastating, Nemtsov should not be regarded as a “rebel hero”. His foray into becoming an oppositioner was motivated by his exclusion from the inner circle that had access to the financial resources of the country, and constantly stole from the people of Russia. He didn’t die for his opinions, he died because he betrayed the members of his “gang”.