Nemtsov was one of those potential opposition leaders, who were able to give direction to the chaotic movement. And that is why he posed threat to the Kremlin regime.

On February 27 at about midnight in Moscow Boris Nemtsov was shot at close range. The impudence of the murderers is astonishing: Nemtsov was shot at the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge — basically before the Kremlin’s eyes. There is a video where the moment of murder is captured; however, the criminals are not caught yet.

Colleagues and associates call Nemtsov’s murder “political revenge”; the investigation thinks about many versions, but political one is not among them.

What does the impudent shameless murder of the prominent politician in the close vicinity of Kremlin mean? How will the Russian society perceive this loss?? Why will we hardly know the real customers and murderers of Nemtsov?

Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”, answers the questions of EuroBelarus Information Service.

— Did the murder of Boris Nemtsov become a certain Rubicon that separated Russia from fascism?

— I wouldn’t dramatize the situation to this degree. In modern Russia a lot of developments related to the war in Ukraine happen, so the death of Nemtsov, however prominent figure he is, can hardly be named Rubicon. Nemtsov’s death demonstrates the true ugly face of a modern Russia, though for the regimes that are ruling in Belarus and Russia this term isn’t very accurate, as this is not the fascism we know from books.

Let’s take a look: an impudent murder of Nemtsov made everyone indignant, but came as no surprise in modern Russia.

— This is the third murder of a federal-level politician after the murders of Galina Starovoytova and Sergey Yushenkov. Who and why did need Nemtsov’s death?

— I can’t enumerate all prominent murders — there were a lot of them in Moscow. Recently a lot of politicians, public figures, journalists, and FSS employees, such as Alexander Litvinenko were killed; the death of Boris Berezovsky in London is still veiled in obscurity. It is hardly logical to enumerate all the known facts within the tough unbiased attitude towards the events in Russia.

Recently, Nemtsov was in marginalized state rather than a politician of national significance. Of course, he was an important public figure, one of the opposition leaders. However, all opposition and medium where Nemtsov was preserving his authority are now marginalized.

However, murder of Nemtsov, likewise murders of other politicians and public figures are links of one chain, links of regime’s construction that we observe today in Russia.

— What will the consequences of murder of one of the Putin’s regime (done either by Kremlin’s order or with his tacit agreement main opponents) be for Russia?

— As I see it, the actions of the Kremlin’s authorities in relation to Russian opposition are aimed at beheading it, at destroying those who might become its leader and synchronize protest moods. First Russian opposition was deprived of its parliamentary status and forced out at the streets; next efforts of Kremlin’s ideologists were aimed at setting the leaders of street opposition at quarrelling. Let’s look at how many protest actions of dozens of thousands people took place in Russian recently; however, they lacked unity. Russia understands that it is unable to decrease social tension and protest moods in the Russian society, which means that the protest will go out at streets and squares. Thus, the actions of the regime are aimed at depriving opposition of the unity of goals.

Nemtsov was one of the potential leaders, who could give aim at the chaotic direction. That is why he posed a threat to the Kremlin’s regime.

Now the regime can relax, as few of the Russian opposition leaders are left. Garry Kasparov was forced to move abroad, the same thing was done to Nemtsov. Now he is gone, and despite the forecasted growth of protest moods there is no real power behind them.

— On March 1 a funeral procession in memory of Boris Nemtsov took place in Moscow. The procession gathered about 50-70 thousand people, which is too few for a ten-million Moscow but not exactly hopeless for Russia, where 85% of population support Putin’s policy. It seems that the society isn’t yet ready for Russia’s lawlessness, is it?

— Let’s compare the state of Russian and Ukrainian societies.

Protest moods are strong both here and there. However, Ukrainian society is not only decisive and ready to fight till it wins, but also a clear image of what people want from the authorities. Protest moods in Ukraine are positive. Russian protests are rather negative. Russian opposition can more or less formulate against what it protests. But what does it stand for? Is it for Putin to become better, or to stop the war, or to stop wasting huge income from natural resources?

There is no clear program, no leaders who could formulate clear program. Nemtsov had such potential; he guided people and they could expect positive program from him. Nemtsov is no longer here. Now Russian society is more and more moving away from the state that Ukrainian society is in.

— Did Putin follow in Lukashenko’s footsteps? Disappearance of opposition politicians and journalists in Belarus happened before our eyes...

— The similarity of steps made my Lukashenko’s and Putin’s regimes became clear long time ago. The similarity is very relative due to the huge difference between the two countries: Huge imperial Russia and Belarus that is gradually understanding its real position in the world. However, the leaders of the countries are very similar in actions, manners, in the way they think.

Lukashenko might also turn to be an experimental figure in FSS’ and cynical Kremlin’s political engineers’ hands, as he was let in Belarus to perfect what Kremlin was going to introduce in Russia.

Of course, on the one hand, Putin is Lukashenko’s student, but on the other — Lukashenko is Kremlin’s protégé and FSS’ experiment himself.

— The murder happened a day before the 20th anniversary of Vladislav Listyev’s murder, which is undisclosed up to this day. This coincidence is too symbolic...

— Death and tragedy actualize our poetic, pathos perception of the world. There is a lot of symbolism in that. But I would warn against attaching too much significance to symbols that are evident though are hardly intentional symbolization. I don’t think that this murder was surrounded by symbols on purpose.

Will this murder be detected? Let’s recall: were any of the loud political murders in Russian disclosed? We don’t know who are real clients, organizers, and actual doers of Vladislav Listyev’s murder; the official version has a very weird presentation of Starovoytova’s murder, nothing is known about the clients and actual doers in Politkovskaya’s murder. When notorious murders happen abroad, as in case with Litvinenko or Berezovsky, after a long investigation we can finally find out who was the client of these murers.

On the whole, political crimes are rarely disclosed, as seen from history. However, it is in Kremlin’s interests to disclose Nemtsov’s murder — so that to relieve itself of any suspicions. But due to this factor, Kremlin will d everything possible to avert suspicions, and we can hardly hope that we’ll see real clients and actual doers.