A Brief History
On February 27, 2015, Russian physicist Boris Nemtsov found out personally why publicly taking issue with Vladimir Putin is dangerous to his health. A liberal leaning politician, Nemtsov had become a vocal critic of Russian dictator Putin since about 2000, ultimately leading to the assassination of Nemtsov.
Digging Deeper
Nemtsov had expressed fear of being murdered at Putin’s behest only a couple weeks before the murder, a murder by five Chechen men contracted for the killing. Nemtsov was gunned down while walking across Moscow’s Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge shortly before midnight.
Despite being the victim of a crime, Nemtsov was treated more like a criminal after his death, with police raiding his home and seizing all electronic devices and papers.
Vladimir Putin is alleged to be a ruthless and vindictive ruler, and is suspected of killing or trying to kill many opponents, including journalists, politicians, dissidents, and in 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Aron, Leon. Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Uses of War. AEI Press, 2023.
McGlynn, Jade. Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Kremlin.ru of Vladimir Putin and Boris Nemtsov in December 2000, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
