On his CNN food travel show last year, Anthony Bourdain had dinner with Boris Nemtsov, the Putin critic gunned down today in Moscow. From the 2013 episode’s transcript:

BOURDAIN (voice-over): Bad things seem to happen to critics of Vladimir Putin. Journalists, activists, even powerful oligarchs once seemingly untouchable, are now fair game if they displease the leader.

(on camera): So we were supposed to be dining at another restaurant this evening and when they heard that you would be joining me, we were uninvited. Should I be concerned about having dinner with you?

BORIS NEMTSOV, FMR. DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA: This is a country of corruption. And if you have business, you are in a very unsafe situation. Everybody can press you and destroy your business. That’s it. This is a system.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): Meet Boris Nemtsov. He was deputy prime minister under Yeltsin and today is one of Putin’s most vocal critics.

This restaurant was kind enough to take us in, but the chef is a Brit so maybe he has less reason to worry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First course, gentlemen?

BOURDAIN: At Yornik restaurant, they are serving their own versions of dino-era Russian classics. A modern riff on borscht, typically a chunky, hearty cabbage broth with chunks meat, here it’s a puree with a more elegant, shall we say, deconstructed presentation.

(on camera): Critics of the government, critics of Putin, bad things seem to happen to them.

NEMTSOV: Yes. Unfortunately, existing power represent what I say Russia of 19th century, not of 21st.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): Critics of Putin, beware. Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky accused Putin of corruption and wound up spending ten years in prison and labor camps. Alexander Litvinenko accused state security services of organizing a coup to put Putin in power. He was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium. And Viktor Yushchenko, the former Ukrainian president, poisoned, disfigured and nearly killed by a toxic dose of dioxin.

I’m not saying official Russian bodies had anything to do with it, but it’s mighty suspicious.

(on camera): I don’t think you need to be a conspiracy theorist to say whoever did this very much wanted everyone to know who done it. Everybody understands.

NEMTSOV: Yes, of course.

BOURDAIN: And everybody is meant to understand.

NEMTSOV: Yes, everybody understands. Everybody understands everything in this country.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): When you’re talking classic conspiracy theories and classically Russian style paranoia, you want some classic Russian food to go along with it. Pelmini, minced meat dumplings served on a pillow of cabbage with sour cream.

(on camera): Mm, very good. Maybe the most extreme and visible example of how things seem to work here is the Sochi Olympics.

NEMTSOV: If you look at the map of Russian Federation, it’s difficult to find a sport without knowing the (INAUDIBLE), but Putin did.

BOURDAIN: It seems like a pretty obvious question, if you wanted to hold a winter Olympics in Miami, presumably someone would say isn’t it a little warm there?

NEMTSOV: This is absolutely personal Putin project. They spent more than $50 billion of dollars, which is the most expensive Games in the history of mankind.

BOURDAIN: $26,000 a seat for the curling stadium? To build?

GOTTA: Per seat.

NEMTSOV: (INAUDIBLE) road from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana, which is 30 miles, price for that, $9 billion U.S. This is a road, right? It’s three times expensive than American program flying to Mars.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): And who got many of those contracts for the roads and stadiums and infrastructure? Well, there’s these guys. Putin’s childhood friends and judo partners, the Rottenburg brothers, whose companies received contracts worth upwards of $7 billion. And Putin’s associate of 20 years, Vladimir Yakunin, who owns the state railroads. His company received $10 billion worth of contracts.

NEMTSOV: It’s very easy to imagine what’s happened with this money.

BOURDAIN (on camera): Right.

(voice-over): And you know who cares in Russia? Just about no one.

(on camera): And here’s — this is a case of the Litvinenko case, a known enemy of Putin stricken with a bout of radioactive polonium. Aren’t you concerned?

NEMTSOV: Me, about myself?

BOURDAIN: Yes. You’re a pain in the ass.

NEMTSOV: Tony, I was born here 54 years ago. This is my country. The Russian people are in bit of trouble. Russian court doesn’t work. Russian education decline every year. I believe that Russia has a chance to be free. Has a chance. It’s difficult but we must do it.