All news

Russian opposition to hold mourning march in Moscow after Nemtsov death

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Opposition members will gather for a mourning march in downtown Moscow on Sunday in memory of killed Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead while walking along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge overnight to Saturday with several shots from a handgun from a car passing by him.

He was a co-chair of the RPR-Parnas liberal democratic political party and a deputy of a regional legislature, the Yaroslavl city duma. Nemtsov held a number of Russian government positions in the 1990s.

Moscow authorities have given a permission for a planned procession to be attended by a maximum of 50,000 people, the head of the city’s department of regional security, Alexei Mayorov, said.

The march is due to begin at 3 p.m. Moscow time (1200 GMT). The route lies from Kitaigorodsky Proyezd along Moskvoretskaya Embankment and the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, and will end at the Maly Moskvoretsky Bridge.

The official warned that "in an effort to prevent repeated provocations, police will thoroughly check the participants of the event" and asked people to show understanding towards the increased security measures.

Moscow police have pledged to take all the necessary steps to ensure security.

According to Mayorov, no flower-laying ceremony is officially planned during the procession, but organizers said volunteers would take flowers and bring them to a "certain place."

Opposition members have cancelled a demonstration earlier scheduled to be held in Maryino, in southeast Moscow, on Sunday. Nemtsov had been one of the organizers of the event.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into "murder" and "illicit arms trafficking." The investigators have several theories of the murder, while not ruling out that this was a contract killing.

Russia’s authorities have pledged that those guilty of the crime will be brought to justice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Nemtsov’s mother Dina Eidman, 86, that everything will be done to ensure that the organizers and the perpetrators of the murder are properly punished.

Nemtsov’s funeral will be held at Moscow’s Troekurovskoye cemetery on March 3 and a memorial service will be organized at the Sakharov Centre.