Thousands of people headed for a Moscow bridge overlooking the Kremlin to mark the sixth anniversary of the murder of a leading Russian opposition figure
MOSCOW – Thousands of people went to a Moscow bridge overlooking the Kremlin on Saturday to place flowers and mark the sixth anniversary of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a leading figure in the Russian opposition.
Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead while walking along the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge in the early hours of February 27, 2015.
Among those who attended Saturday’s celebration was Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny’s arrest in January on returning to Moscow after five months of recovery in Germany from nerve agent poisoning sparked a wave of protests across the country.
Nemtsov was one of Russia’s most energetic and charismatic opposition figures, and his death was a blow to President Vladimir Putin’s political opponents.
A security officer from the Chechen leader, supported by the Kremlin, was sentenced to 20 years for firing the shots that killed Nemtsov. Four other men were sentenced to 11 to 19 years for involvement.