NEW YORK, July 17. /TASS/. Although crimes against public figures take place in Russia, the Russian government is doing its best to bring those responsible to justice, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Fox News interview on Monday.
When asked by 'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris Wallace about crimes against his "political opponents," including politician Boris Nemtsov and investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Putin replied that similar crimes occur in the United States as well.
"Haven’t presidents been killed in the United States? Have you forgotten about it? Has Kennedy been killed in Russia or in the United States? Or Mr. [Martin Luther] King?" Putin replied.
"All of us have our own set of domestic problems. But going back to what happened in Russia - yes, we do have crime. Unfortunately, there are some crimes. To a certain extent, Russia’s statehood is maturing, and there are some side effects. And we prosecute people responsible for those crimes," Putin said.
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister under then-President Boris Yeltsin, co-chairman of the Parnas political party and lawmaker from the Yaroslavl regional legislature, was gunned down in downtown Moscow on February 27, 2015. Five individuals were found guilty of murdering the politician and sentenced to prison terms ranging between 11 and 20 years. The presumed mastermind and organizer of the crime has been put on the international wanted list.
On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovsakaya, a columnist at the Novaya Gazeta daily, was shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. On June 9, 2014, a court found four people guilty on the basis of a jury verdict. They all were sentenced to prison terms varying between 12 years and life imprisonment.