Russian opposition leader's slaying shocks Moscow

Anna Arutunyan | Special for USA TODAY

MOSCOW — Russia's capital city was reeling Saturday after the shooting death of prominent opposition leader Boris Nemtsov just steps from the Kremlin.

"It's the end of an epoch, an abyss," said Artyom Faizulin, a member of the opposition Progress Party, standing near the spot where Nemtsov was gunned down on Moscow's Moskvoretsky Bridge, close to the Kremlin towers.

The site where Nemtsov's body lay under a plastic sheet for almost two hours is now covered with flowers and candles brought by supporters in the freezing drizzle.

"It's the start of a new, more somber picture of our history, and we will see more political killings," Faizulin said.

Nemtsov, 55, a former first deputy prime minister, was shot and killed shortly before midnight Friday by an unknown gunman who jumped from a white car, fired around seven shots then sped off.

Boris Nemtsov, prominent Russian politician, shot and killed The Russian opposition leader was reportedly gunned down near the Kremlin in Moscow just days ahead of his planned anti-war demonstration. Video provided by Newsy

Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was set to appear at an opposition march scheduled Sunday against Russia's involvement in Ukraine, where a separatist conflict between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces has left more than 5,000 dead since April. Organizers canceled the march, instead planning a gathering Sunday to mourn him.

Moscow, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March, has denied allegations that it is arming separatist rebels and sending troops to Ukraine's east. Nemtsov had been working on a report proving Russia's involvement in the conflict.

Russian authorities reacted swiftly to the killing of Nemtsov, a leader of the liberal Parnas party who was once viewed as a potential handpicked successor to then-president Boris Yeltsin in 1999.

Putin condemned the shooting and took the investigation into the killing under his personal control Saturday morning. His press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, called the incident a "provocation."

By Saturday afternoon, the Investigative Committee said in a statement that it was considering several motives for the crime, including "murder as a provocation to destabilize the political situation in the country."

Two other hypotheses being considered by the Investigative Committee link the fatal shooting to Islamist extremists and to Ukraine.

Some found it hard to believe the perpetrators are not connected to the government because the crime was committed so close to the Kremlin.

"This is a sacred place for (Russian) history," said Valery Kachayev, an artist, who was paying respects Saturday at the bridge where Nemtsov died. "Nothing like this has happened in Russia's recent history. It's like the state secretary being assassinated on the White House lawn."

Colleagues were also skeptical about the official investigation.

"I'm certain that sooner or later the people who killed him will be found, but I strongly doubt this will happen while the current regime is in power," said Ilya Yashin, one of the leaders of the Parnas Party. "While the investigation is being carried out under the current authorities, who considered Nemtsov a personal enemy, there is little hope."

The incident took place against a backdrop of unprecedented propaganda on Russian state television and social networks in wake of the Ukraine crisis, in which political critics are often termed "national traitors" and "fifth columnists."

Putin's popularity has skyrocketed following Russia's annexation of Crimea, despite the toll on the country's economy. A February poll by the Levada Center placed his approval rating at 86%, one point higher than in January.

Nemtsov had received anonymous threats in the past several weeks, Yashin said. His death is "a result of what is happening in the country. That hatred that has been stoked by the government in recent months in many ways led to such a high-profile political murder being committed," Yashin said.

Many of Nemtsov's supporters who gathered on Moskvoretsky Bridge on Saturday blamed the assassination of the outspoken politician on the Kremlin, saying they feared the climate of fear in the country would get worse.

"It's a move towards a new level of repression," Kachayev said. "The regime has turned to political killings."

Others recalled the 1934 assassination of popular communist leader Sergei Kirov, which served as a pretext for the start of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's repressions against his former colleagues. Some historians believe Kirov's murder was the result of a Kremlin attempt to remove a rival.

Independent political expert Alexei Makarkin said he believes the killing was a complete surprise for the Kremlin but added it could seriously undermine future dialogue between Russia and the West, already hampered by the Ukraine crisis.

The crime itself, he said, may have been a provocation by radical elements galvanized by Russia's support of pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.

"There is a party of war, which wants to cut off all contact with the West," said Makarkin, who is vice president of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies. "For them, Nemtsov is an agent of Ukraine, of the enemy, which the authorities have not arrested for some reason."

Relations between Russia and the rest of the world will "very much will depend on how the government investigates a crime committed so close to the Kremlin," he added.