Photo: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Text of the statement:
Eleven years ago, on February 27, 2015, Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in the shadow of the Kremlin walls. The assassination of the leader of the Russian opposition and anti-war movement on the first anniversary of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine marked the final transition of Russia from “managed democracy” to open dictatorship.
Russian authorities claim that Nemtsov’s assassination has been “solved.” In reality, the investigation was wound down as soon as it began to yield results. The masterminds behind the assassination were never identified. Neither the organizers nor the intermediaries were ever even questioned. No one was held criminally responsible except for a handful of low-level perpetrators.
Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights found that Boris Nemtsov’s right to life under Article 2 of the Convention had been violated by the Russian state. Reasonable suspicions regarding Vladimir Putin’s involvement in ordering Nemtsov’s assassination — specifically, that he gave the relevant order to Ramzan Kadyrov — were set out in a supervisory report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Proving these suspicions requires a full and independent investigation, which is impossible in Putin’s Russia today.
We have no doubt that Vladimir Putin is behind the assassination of Boris Nemtsov. We intend to do everything in our power, however long it may take, to ensure that in a future democratic Russia all those involved in this crime — from the lowest perpetrator to the highest mastermind — are brought to justice in accordance with the law. As is well known, Article 277 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — “an attempt on the life of a public figure” — carries no statute of limitations.