"Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian president would take the investigation into Nemtsovs death under personal control, and added he believed the killing to be a provocation". He did that a day earlier!
MORE ON THE ASSASSINATION OF NEMTSOV (SEE PREVIOUS 2 POSTS)
In my judgment, this is a Big Deal. It may be a small earthquake for Russia, but an earthquake none the less.
The analysts I have heard commenting on this event (two former ambassadors to Russia) don't think that Putin ordered the murder, because it is so damaging to his own reputation. However, Putin has for years (and very intensely, since Euromaidan) been fomenting rabid nationalism, paranoia, hatred, and himself as a cult figure.
So, if Putin is not directly and personally responsible for this murder, he created the atmosphere in which such a killing seemed patriotic.
Anatoly Chubais (a veteran of Russian national government who is close to Putin) wrote: "If, just a few days ago, people in our city are carrying signs that say Lets finish off the fifth column, and today they kill Nemtsov, what will happen tomorrow?" He was referring to last weekend's anti-maidan rally in Moscow, where such signs were displayed.
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I see that I didn't mention before, that Nemtsov had met several times with Ukraine's president Poroshenko, or that he has been working on a report tracing Putin's responsibility for arms and fighters in Donbass (which the Kremlin has always denied), and was planning to publish this report soon.
Russian police took the opportunity of Nemtsov's assassination to remove all computers and storage media from his home as "evidence."
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To my knowledge, this is the most important political assassination in Russia during the past 60 years.
It would not benefit Putin to take Nemtsov out. It would demonize him even further. There are a lot of Putin zealots however who think he's a Godlike figure. They may have carried this out thinking they were doing him and Russia a favour.
It can also be that this is all fake, staged and part of theatre. Who is to say?
Some of Nemtsov's closest associates saw his corpse while it still lay on the bridge, and his girlfriend was walking beside him when he was gunned down.
As to "political discussion," I believe that this goes far beyond politics: it has cultural and even spiritual dimensions. Since Putin took the reins of power in 2000, Russia has in material and some social respects grown more modern -- but in other ways, Russia has made a backward motion toward earlier phases of its history, each new year taking it farther into its past.
An obvious reason to be concerned about this, is that Russia's past so saturated with darkness and horror. I'll leave it Russian novelist Vladimir Sorokin, quoted from a phone interview (in 2008, I believe):
"Russia is like a block of ice floating back into the 16th century. Again we are living under a centralized government like in the time of Ivan the Terrible. This power vertical, which Putin keeps talking about, is a completely medieval model for Russia. There is no accountability, no transparency."
To those that think in western terms you are nave,,,, there is nothing to deter Putin. When interim president Yatsenyuk did not send in a force to dust off the invasion of Simferopol airport and the westerns countries have made no physical opposition as well, Putin was emboldened to take whatever action he wants with no real external opposition. Only internal opposition or direct military action will stop the advancing invasion. The Russian people will suffer economically, just the people in North Korea, but the elite, yeah right! The west is delusional to think that these cease fires the start of a better life. They are only a ploy to mobilize more troops and equipment without any fear of a counter offensive. He does not give a SH*t about what anyone thinks of him especially the proletariat of the west.
If you've seen photos from Sunday's Moscow march in the memory of Nemtsov, you may have noticed signs with his photo, and his 5-letter name followed by a sixth character in a different font and/or shade, the Russian soft sign (similar to lower-case 'b').
Without the soft sign, it is his given name (Борис); with the soft sign appended (Борись) it translates to "fight!"
May God bless the beleaguered millions of Russians who resist the madness of the great majority, and of their cruel, deceitful and violent authoritarian system.
Durak: On February 27 Yatsenyuk was acting Head of Government and Turchynov was acting Head of State. Yatsenyuk was in charge in the days following yanukovich's hasty retreat to his master and the start of the occupation
A terrific citation from John Herbst of the Atlantic Council:
"The great Russian historian Vasiliy Klyuchevsky wrote in the late 19th century that 'the foreign territorial expansion of the Russian government moves in inverse proportional relationship to the development of the internal freedom of the people' (Russian History, Volume II, Lecture XLI)."
Five generations later, same sh*t, different tyrant.
A CHALLENGE TO THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (THAT PUTIN DIDN'T DO IT)
Lots of "Russia hands" have been saying the Putin would not have ordered the murder of Boris Nemtsov (see several preceding posts on this thread), because the fallout from the murder will harm Putin's reputation and practical interests.
In this article: http://goo.gl/8oachx
Leonid Bershidsky of Bloomberg, generally a sharp critic of Putin's policies, disagrees with this idea. It's an interesting take, and well worth reading. The article quotes Vladimir Milov, a friend and collaborator to Nemtsov: "In the past year Putin has convincingly proven that he has different views than uninformed commentators on what benefits him and what doesn't. He showed he was ready to take war, losses, sanctions, international isolation -- all for the sake of his own sacral and strategic goals that he alone understands."
Thats just it, Durak, conventional western wisdom also thinks the sanctions should be enough to make Putin stop his war in the Donbass but they dont understand Putin.
The west doesnt understand that Russia's military operates in the Ruble zone and a weak ruble has no effect on the military or their operations. What isnt considered "surplus" and already sent en masse is advanced weapons needing a proving ground to test their effectiveness in combat. There are more Russian supplied tanks, rocket launchers and anti aircraft systems in Ukraine that dwarf the power of the Baltic states COMBINED! Even if Poland sent every weapon they had to eastern Ukraine it could not match the firepower sent by Russia.
Putin has taken down much more powerful people in Russia in the last year than Nemtsov. Nalvany is only a few steps away from the same fate. He has just been lucky as he is still being used by the kremlin as a face of evil in propaganda. The Kremlin knew before they had Nemtsov killed that he had not given his files to anyone. If he had, they would also be in custody by now. This killing was a warning to others in Russia that dissent will not be tolerated in any form nor fashion. In many ways, Putin has more power than Stalin and has simply chosen to not yet use that power. That is despite the fact that more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees have been deported to northern Siberia and Kamchatka.
Putin knows he has until early 2017 to achieve his goals because he knows Odumbass wont challenge him even if he goes after a Baltic states as Odumbass is too focused on protecting the Muslim brotherhood and too busy blowing the Ayatollah's shaft all with Russian help to keep America's ass lubed up for the Butt reaming they will help Iran do to Obama.
Putin doesnt give a fark what the western world thinks because he believes the west to be nothing but an impotent limp-wristed mouthpiece talking loudly but saying nothing.
Today, Alexander Lukashevich, the spokesman of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (МИД) accused Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, of trying to create in Crimea a "dangerous hotbed of separatism" (opasniy ochag separatisma).
Dzhemilev's actual "crime?" He told the truth (in an interview with French journalists) about the population he represents: that Crimean Tatars are suffering mass violations of their human right under Russia's unlawful occupation, and that they want the authority of Ukraine's government to be restored there.
Separatism outside of Russia = good. Separatism in territories under Putin's vicious dominion = bad.
Kommersant article (in Russian): http://goo.gl/9N5Qtk
NAVALNY MAKES STRONG ARGUMENT FOR PUTIN'S HAND IN MURDER OF NEMTSOV
Aleksei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov were the two must influential political figures in Russia, opposed to the Putin regime and its "values". Now, Nemtsov is dead.
Navalny made a post on his blog, countering the ideas that Putin is not directly responsible, because he does not benefit, or is indirectly responsible by creating a climate of fear and hatred.
His argument is detailed and well reasoned, I recommend you read:
http://goo.gl/xAziQN (Kyiv post; English translation with some explanatory notes)