What the victims of a long series of Russian political assassinations, journalists, political/human rights activists, a former secret service agent ... share is that each, in distinct ways, was trying to shine a light on the corruption, venality or brutality of the regime run by President Vladimir Putin. Whether he was responsible for their deaths remains, however, a matter of speculation – in only one case, that of the killing of a former agent in exile in London, Alexander Litvinenko in London, has a evidence emerged amounting to case to answer for the Russian president. It is the only case in which the investigation is being conducted by other than the Russian police.
In the context, the announcement that Mr Putin will himself lead the investigation into the death on Friday of campaigner and former deputy PM Boris Nemstov is not reassuring. Reporters say that investigators have already ruled out suggestions he was killed for his opposition view, preferring to blame what official spokesman Vladimir Markin suggested was a plot by fellow oppositionists to make him a "sacrificial victim" to increase tension in society.
Russians love conspiracy theories, but even by Russian standards this is far-fetched and has a ring of the sort of Soviet-era investigations that were always more politics than police. Another official suggestion was that Islamic extremists had killed Nemtsov because of his criticism of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris. The Kremlin website characterised the murder as a “provocation.”
The tens of thousands who marched on Sunday through Moscow's streets in protest at the killing, the biggest demonstration in the city since the protests of 2011-12 , are not convinced and pointed an accusing finger at the Kremlin. Nemstov, who had been among those organising what would probably have been a small a march against austerity and Russia's involvement in Ukraine, was preparing to publish a pamphlet on Putin in Ukraine. A colleague reported that he had direct evidence o the participation of the Russian army in the Donbas war. He had been denounced as a traitor by the regime.
There is real concern among the ranks of the opposition that the killing is a sign of more to come against those regarded as disloyal. “The motive was to sow fear,” says Vladimir Milov, a former deputy minister of energy and co-author with Nemtsov of pamphlets alleging corruption in Putin’s government.
In the last couple of years the tide has turned against Putin’s opponents o – as Nemtsov characterised them , no longer an opposition, now “no more than dissidents”. The street demonstrations declined in the face of intimidation, a growing officialy sanctioned virulent nationalism, and a sense of powerlessness . But the weekendmarche reflects a submerged reality of wider discontent - perhaps it is a realisation of the ultimate fragility of his position that prompts Putin’s brutality.