Ukrainian Who Witnessed Nemtsov’s Murder Arrives in Kyiv
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Hanna Duritska, a Ukrainian who accompanied Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov when he was killed the evening of February 27th in the center of Moscow, returned to Kyiv and is ready to further cooperate with the investigation.
She did not communicate with reporters and was taken out of the airport terminal through the back door, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.
Nemtsov’s lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, who represents Duritska in Russia, said that she, being the main witness in the murder case of Nemtsov, is cooperating with the investigation and is ready to take part in additional investigative actions. Prokhorov affirms that she could not return to Ukraine immediately because the necessary investigative procedures were not completed, not because she is a suspect.
Ilya Yashin, Nemtsov’s party colleague in RPR-PARNAS, is certain that Nemtsov was killed by professionals and that the murder is related to opposition activities, not to his personal life, reports Interfax-Ukraine.
“The fact that the criminals were not caught while fleeing from the scene also supports the theory that they were professionals who knew perfectly well how the work of the Moscow police and security systems are organized,” he said.
Yashin said that Boris Nemtsov told him a day and a half before his death that he was preparing a report on the participation of the Russian military in combat operations in the Donbas, that he would be ready to present it in a month, and that he had been in contact with the relatives of dead soldiers. Now investigators are in possession of these documents so it is unknown whether the report will ever be made public.
Earlier, Sergei Nikitin, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director, noted that the general feeling of impunity, the apparent lack of political will to find and bring to justice all those responsible for human rights violations, and the obvious lack of professionalism on behalf of law enforcement have created an atmosphere of hatred and permissiveness.
“Nemtsov’s murder must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible must be punished. Would the system want it? Would the police, prosecutors, investigative committee, or the court be able to do it? That is a big question,” said Nikitin.
The Memorial International Society has claimed that the Russian government is responsible for the murder of Boris Nemtsov.
In recent years and months, the Russian authorities and the media they control have created an atmosphere of hatred against any dissent, say human rights activists. State propaganda allows murderers to feel impunity, opposition and independent activists are called enemy agents, and they are essentially declared “fair game.” For example, on March 1st, the NTV channel announced the next episode of the show Anatomy of Protest where Boris Nemtsov has the role of one of the main “enemies.”
The Russian authorities orchestrated the creation of Anti-Maidan: units of storm troopers who are linked to “militias” fighting in eastern Ukraine and are meant to suppress the opposition. Those who return to Russia from Donbas have experience in using armed violence with impunity.
“Today, we still do not know the names of the hit men, their organizers, or their pay masters. But, we can definitely assert that it was the Russian government that created all the prerequisites for the murder of Boris Nemtsov,” says Memorial’s statement.
