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European Parliament demands international probe in Nemtsov’s murder

The MEPs ask to carry out international investigation calling this murder the most significant political assassination in recent Russian history

STRASBOURG, March 12. /TASS/. Members of the European Parliament have demanded to carry out an international investigation into the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, says the resolution adopted at a plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday.

It was the "most significant political murder in recent Russian history", the MEPs said asking to carry out an international investigation so that tools available within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and the UN would help to ensure an unbiased and transparent probe.

Besides, the MEPs condemned the fact "some MEPs and diplomats who wished to attend Mr Nemtsov’s funeral were refused entry to Russia."

Earlier, the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Lukashevich, said that MEP Sandra Kalniete (from Latvia, a member of the largest European People’s Party — TASS) had been denied entry to Russia "for her anti-Russian rhetoric as a tit-for-tat measure for EU sanctions against certain Russian officials." He said the Latvian side had been notified beforehand.

"Thus, the above mentioned politician’s arrival can be referred to as nothing but seeking provocative goals," Lukashevich said.

On March 2 Kalniete arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where her passport was taken away from her for checking and then she was denied access to Russia.

Nemtsov, a co-leader of the RPR-Parnas opposition party, was gunned down on a bridge in central Moscow at a blank-point range several hundred meters away from the Kremlin late on February 27. He was buried at Moscow’s Troyekurovskoye cemetery on March 3.

On March 8, Moscow’s Basmanny district court remanded in custody Anzor and Shagid Gubashev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, Khamzad Bakhayev and Zaur Dadayev, detained on charges of involvement in the politician’s murder.