Russia arrests 2 men over Nemtsov assassination
Russia has arrested two men on charges of assassinating opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.
“As a result of work that has been done, two men suspected of committing this crime were arrested today, they are Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, and the head of state has been informed,” said Alexander Bortnikov (seen below), the chief of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), on Saturday.
“The necessary operational and investigative procedures are continuing,” he added.
The security official also stated that the two suspects hailed from the Caucasus region.
‘Murder masterminded abroad’
Following the detentions, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying that the murder was most probably engineered and masterminded in foreign countries.
“The trail of this crime may lead abroad. This theory is being actively considered,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Nikolay Kovalev, the former chief of the FSB, pointed out that according to the police initial investigation, the two arrested individuals were mercenaries paid to murder Nemtsov, adding, “The key is to find out who ordered this assassination.”
A fellow opposition politician, Ilya Yashin, welcomed the arrests and urged the Russian authorities to divulge more information about the suspects and their potential sponsors.
“We hope the arrest… is not an error but the result of good work by security forces, but for now it is hard to say,” said Yashin, adding, “Quite frankly the execution of the investigation had not inspired any optimism, but the fact that there have been arrests inspires some optimism.”
Nemtsov’s assassination
On February 27, Nemtsov (shown above) was shot dead as he was walking across a bridge in the Russian capital city of Moscow.
According to Nemtsov’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, the politician had started to receive death threats on social media sites over the past few months.
The assassination came ahead of the annual spring opposition rally scheduled for March 1 in Moscow, which he was set to lead.
