BERLIN ¨C For years, Moscow insiders have reacted to former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov¡¯s philippics against President Vladimir Putin with a roll of the eyes. Everyone knew what Nemtsov was going to say. The man Boris Yeltsin almost picked as his successor had become irrelevant, marginalized.
Now Nemtsov¡¯s criticism of Putin¡¯s Russia has been validated in the most terrible way. On Friday, the opposition politician was killed a few hundred yards from the Kremlin, shot at least four times as he crossed a bridge over the Moskva River.
Just a few hours before his death, Nemtsov went on Ekho Mosky radio to call on Muscovites to join an opposition march Sunday. Another of the event¡¯s organizers, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, was pre-emptively sentenced to 15 days in jail, so he will miss the demonstration. So now will Nemtsov, who was as relentless a Putin critic as Navalny, but less popular because of his history as a successful politician in the 1990s.
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