EU chair Latvia calls for 'answers' on Nemtsov killing

The murder of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader, in central Moscow has prompted strong statements from some EU capitals and the US.

Russian state media said he was shot four times at around 11.15pm local time on Friday (27 February) on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky bridge, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, by an “unknown assailant” in a white car.

They noted that president Vladimir Putin was “informed” and launched an inquest which he will “personally head”.

They also said police were conducting a manhunt.

The killing of the 55-year old Russian politician, a former deputy prime minister and a father of four, came shortly after he’d spoken on the independent Ekho Moskvy radio station, urging people to join a rally, on 1 March, against the war in Ukraine.

The first EU reaction came in a tweet by the foreign minister of Latvia, which currently holds the EU presidency.

“Horrible news … condolences to family, Russia must conduct swift, non partial investigation, provide answers”, Edgars Rinkevics said.

Zygimantas Pavilionis, Lithuania’s ambassador to the US, was more strident. “Time 4Russian people 2wake up & defend their dignity. #Putinkiller preparing Russia 4totalitarian rule. Road 2hell. RIP Nemtsov”, his tweet said.

For his part, US president Barack Obama echoed Latvia's plea, calling for "a prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his murder".

He described Nemtsov as "a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled".

Inside Russia fellow opposition activists pointed the finger of at Putin.

“Nemtsov was a stark opposition leader who criticised the most important state officials in our country, including president Vladimir Putin. As we have seen, such criticism in Russia is dangerous for one's life”, Ilya Yashin told Ekho Moskvy.

Nemstov’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, told Kommersant, a liberal daily: “One thing is clear: no one from Boris Nemtsov's circle or his colleagues can feel safe. I'm sure that this has a political motive, and that the murder could have been committed by someone returning from conflict zone in south-eastern Ukraine”.

According to Reuters, Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian PM, told reporters at the scene of the crime: "That a leader of the opposition could be shot beside the walls of the Kremlin is beyond imagination. There can be only one version: that he was shot for telling the truth”.

The Kremlin also described the murder as political, but hinted that the motive is to designed to create instability.

"Putin noted that the violent murder bears the marks of a contract killing and is purely provocative," Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Tass.

The Nemtsov killing is the latest in a series of high-profile murders of anti-corruption activists, human rights campaigners, and Kremlin critics under Putin’s leadership.

The list includes, but is not limited to, Alexei Devotchenko, Natalia Estemirova, Alexander Litvinenko (killed in the UK), Sergei Magnitsky, and Anna Politkovskaya (killed on Putin’s birthday).

The responsible persons have not been brought to justice in any of the cases.

The EU and US have imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The US has also imposed separate sanctions over the Magnitsky case on human rights grounds.

But the EU has refused to do so, with diplomats saying they cannot prove who killed him and that they cannot set a precedent of imposing blacklists for the sake of individual criminal cases overseas.