Two men held in Nemtsov murder

Two men from the Caucasus region were detained for alleged links to the murder of the famed opposition activist.

Mourners following the Russian tradition of memorialising a person nine days after a death lay flowers and votive candles at the place where Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down on Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 near the Kremlin, in Moscow, on Saturday, March 7, 2015. Two suspects have been detained in the killing a week ago of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the head of Russia's federal security service said Saturday, an announcement received with both skepticism and reserved satisfaction by some of Nemtsov's comrades.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)Show less

MOSCOW // Russia said on Saturday it had arrested two suspects over the killing of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin in a brazen assassination that shocked the country.

The arrests come a week after the longtime critic of president Vladimir Putin was shot four times in the back as he strolled with his girlfriend along a bridge in the heart of the capital, in view of the Kremlin and Red Square.

“As a result of work that has been done, two men suspected of committing this crime were arrested today, they are Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, and the head of state has been informed,” the head of the FSB federal security service Alexander Bortnikov told state television.

He said the two men were from the Caucasus region.

“The necessary operational and investigative procedures are continuing,” said Mr Bortnikov.

The latest killing of a high-profile government critic under Mr Putin’s rule prompted an outpouring of international condemnation and stunned members of an opposition who blamed the Kremlin for whipping up hatred against anyone who expresses dissent by referring to them as “traitors”.

The 55-year-old, a renowned anti-corruption crusader who served as Boris Yeltsin’s first deputy prime minister in the 1990s, was shot dead just two days before he was to lead a major anti-government rally.

However the protest march — called to denounce Russia’s alleged role in Ukraine crisis — instead became a massive memorial for Nemtsov, with tens of thousands swarming the streets of Moscow in the largest opposition gathering since a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-12.

Mr Putin, whose rule has seen the steady suppression of independent media and opposition parties, had promised an all-out effort to catch those responsible for an act which he called a “provocation”.

Russian news agencies reported the men were being held in the high-security Lefortovo prison in Moscow, and would appear in court by Monday at the latest to determine whether they should remain in custody.

Vadim Prokhorov, the lawyer for Nemtsov’s girlfriend and sole witness to the murder Ganna Duritska — who returned to Kiev after the killing — told Kommersant radio that he was not sure if she would be summoned back to Moscow after the arrests but was “ready to cooperate” with investigators.

Theories have proliferated since the killing over why Nemtsov was targeted.

Some suggest he was assassinated for criticising Russia’s role in Ukraine conflict, others for his condemnation of January’s killings at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris by radical Muslims.

Friends said Nemtsov had been working on a report containing what he described as proof of Russian military involvement in the bloody uprising by pro-Moscow militias in eastern Ukraine.

* Agence France-Presse