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MOSCOW
(AP) - Russia's security service head has announced that two suspects
in the killing of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov have been
detained, but the short and vague announcement yesterday prompted only
scepticism and weak ...
Russian authorities arrest 4 in killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov Killed
Story highlights
- There were two sets of men arrested, state media reports
- All four suspects are ethnic Chechens, law enforcement official tells media
- Opposition leader Nemtsov had been arrested several times for speaking against government
(CNN)Russian
authorities arrested four men Saturday in connection with the shooting
death of a leading opposition figure, Russian state media reported.
Boris
Nemtsov, one of President Vladimir Putin's most outspoken critics, was
shot in the back on a Moscow bridge as he walked with his girlfriend
near the Kremlin in late February.
Surveillance video showed someone darting from the sidewalk and into a nearby car right after Nemtsov collapsed.
Putin
has been informed of the arrests in connection with Nemtsov's death,
Russian media said, citing Federal Security Service director Alexander
Bortnikov.
Two of the suspects are Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, Bortnikov said in a televised statement.
MOSCOW,
RUSSIA - MARCH 01: People march in memory of Russian opposition leader
and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on March 01, 2015 in
central Moscow, Russia.
Bortnikov
said those detained are from the southern region of the North Caucasus,
which for years has been a hotbed of unrest and rebellion against
Moscow.
The
slain opposition leader's daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, told CNN she is
"not surprised both of them [are] of Caucasus origin. It was
predictable."
Nemtsova said the only
things she knew about the arrests came from media reports, as
authorities did not contact her immediately.
Later Saturday, a southern Russian law enforcement official told state news agency RIA Novosti that two more men were arrested.
The
two men were arrested in the southern republic of Ingushetia, said
Albert Barahoev, the secretary of Ingushetia Security Council, according
to RIA Novosti.
The suspects in the
second arrest were not named, but one of them was driving with Dadayev,
and the other man is Gubashev's younger brother, Barahoev said. All four
suspects are ethnic Chechens, according to Barahoev.
Opposition blames Putin
After Nemtsov's shooting Putin blamed extremists and protesters who he said were trying to stir internal strife in Russia.
World reacts to Boris Nemtsov's killing 16 photos
Many
opposition sympathizers and people close to Nemtsov have pointed the
finger at Putin and the Russian government he leads. They note that
Nemtsov -- the deputy prime minister under former President Boris
Yeltsin -- is the latest in a list of Putin's opponents who have been
killed or imprisoned.
Nemtsov had also been arrested several times for speaking against the government.
In her first TV interview
since her father's death, Nemtsova told CNN Putin shares "political
responsibility" for her father's assassination. She spoke from Germany.
"I don't believe in the official investigation," she said on Saturday.
Jailed or killed
Other opposition figures previously jailed or killed
include Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist critical of Russia's war in
Chechnya. She was gunned down at the entrance to her Moscow apartment in
2006.
There was also business magnate
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who backed an opposition party and accused Putin
of corruption. Khodorkovsky landed in jail after a conviction on tax
fraud, which he said was a ploy to take away his oil company. The
government rejected the claim. Putin pardoned him in 2013.
Former
Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by a lethal
dose of radioactive polonium, his tea spiked in a London hotel during a
meeting with two former Russian security servicemen in 2006.
He
had blamed the agency for orchestrating a series of apartment bombings
in Russia in 1999 that left hundreds dead and led to Russia's invasion
of Chechnya later that year.
The
Kremlin has staunchly denied accusations that it or its agents are
targeting political opponents or had anything to do with the deaths.
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