‘Scapegoat’ fears as two are detained over Nemtsov shooting

Mr Nemtsov, a former deputy prime who became leading critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin walls as he walked home from a cafe with his girlfriend.

Some of the 55-year-old’s friends have asked why the police took so long to arrive at the scene and how someone could fire six shots at him and get away in an area monitored by numerous CCTV cameras.

Many in the liberal opposition believe the Kremlin stood to gain from Nemtsov’s killing because it will act as a warning to other Kremlin critics that they should stay silent.

Mr Putin has called the shooting a shameful tragedy and says he will do everything possible to ensure those responsbible are caught and punished.

Caucusus link

The Investigative Committee, the state body leading the investigation, named the suspects as Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev.

Russian state-controlled media reported the two were from the Caucasus, a violent and impoverished region on Russia‘s southern flank. They were expected to be formally arrested at a court hearing in Moscow on Sunday, reports said.

The committee said in a statement: “The individuals detained are, according to our investigation, involved in the organisation and execution of the

killing of Boris Nemtsov.”

Colleagues of Nemtsov said they would only be satisfied when whoever masterminded the killing was behind bars.

Previous high-profile killings in Russia have led to people being jailed for pulling the trigger – often hired hitmen from the Caucasus – while investigators have failed to track down those who ordered the assassinations.

‘Scapegoat’ fears

Ilya Yashin, the co-chairman of Nemtsov’s party, said: “I want to believe that these ones are really the ones who conducted (the killing) and that once in a while law enforcement worked professionally and detained real assassins, and did not make a mistake.

“The key task for investigators is to find and prosecute the ones who ordered this murder. If everything ends with the detention of scapegoats, irrespective of whether they are the real assassins or not, the practice of political assassinations will continue with no doubt.”

Investigators have said the killing could have been a provocation to discredit the Kremlin, linked to Nemtsov’s business dealings or his private life, an attack by Islamist militants, or connected to the conflict in Ukraine.

No direct evidence has emerged linking the Kremlin to the killing.

People from the Caucasus have been named as suspects in other assassinations, including those of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist critical of the Kremlin, and Paul Klebnikov, a US citizen and journalist with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.

Politkovskaya’s supporters say the Chechens sentenced for her killing were low-level foot soldiers, and that investigators failed to find out who was behind her murder.