Russia: Mourners view body of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov

Thousands of mourners and dignitaries filed past the white-lined coffin of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday, paying last respects to one of the most prominent figures of Russia’s beleaguered opposition. Nemtsov was shot to death late on Friday while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin with a companion. No suspects have been arrested. [caption id=“attachment_2129369” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  People light candles in memory of Boris Nemtsov, seen behind, at the monument of political prisoners ‘Solovetsky Stone’ in central St.Petersburg. AP[/caption] The killing has deeply shaken Russia’s small and marginalized opposition movement. Many opposition supporters suspect the killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for his ardent criticism of President Vladimir Putin, while authorities have suggested several possible motives including a provocation aimed at tarnishing Putin’s image. “He was our ray of light. With his help I think Russia would have risen up and become a strong country. It is the dream of all progressive people in Russia,” said one of the mourners, 80-year-old Valentina Gorbatova. Nemtsov, 55, had been a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and was widely seen as a rising young reformer. However, in the Putin era Nemtsov’s party lost its seats in parliament. Although his influence in mainstream politics vanished, he remained visible as one of Putin’s most vehement critics. Just a few hours before his death, he conducted a radio interview in which he denounced Putin for “mad, aggressive” policies in the Ukraine crisis. Nemtsov’s body lay in a coffin in the Sakharov Center in central Moscow, named after the late Soviet-era dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov. The funeral and burial are to be held in the afternoon. Among those who viewed him were U.S. Ambassador John Tefft and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who has gone into opposition. Russian deputy prime ministers Sergei Prikhodko and Arkady Dvorkovich also attended, according to Russian news reports. Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomarev echoed the view of many opposition figures that the nationalism and intolerance of dissent that has risen under Putin, including on state-controlled television, has coarsened society and encouraged violence. “In this atmosphere of violence and hate, these killings will only continue,” he said. Many commentators said that like other key opposition leaders, Nemtsov was constantly shadowed by police, so it would be hard to imagine his killing could go unnoticed by them. Some noted that Nemtsov died on the newly established holiday commemorating the Special Operations Forces, honoring troops who swept through Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, setting the stage for its annexation by Russia a year ago. Nemtsov’s killing was the biggest political assassination in Russia since another Kremlin foe, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was shot to death in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on Putin’s birthday in 2006. Five Chechens were convicted in the case last year, but it has remained unclear who ordered the killing. Some observers speculated that certain members of a hawkish, isolationist wing of the government could have had a hand in Nemtsov’s death, possibly counting on it to provoke outrage abroad and further strain Russia’s ties with the West. Those relations already are at their lowest point since the Cold War because of the Ukrainian crisis. AP