Putin dismissive about brutal killing of Boris Nemtsov

"Nemtsov was working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the separatist rebellion that has raged in eastern Ukraine since last April. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and sophisticated weapons. Moscow denies the accusations." (CBC News : Feb 27, 2015) (my emphasis)

So wrote a report by the Associated Press  following the brutal killing of Boris Nemtsov yesterday as he walked over a bridge tens of metres from the Kremlin itself. 

An ardent critic of Putin, Nemtsov feared that Putin would have him killed.

"In a recent interview, Mr Nemtsov had said he feared Mr Putin would have him killed because of his opposition to the war in Ukraine." (BBC News : 28 February 2015)

  
Tributes to Nemtsov are now pouring in from all over the world, urging Putin to conduct a transparent investigation into this brutal killing of a man who not only exposed the gargantuan corruption that took place in setting up Putin's Sochi Winter Olympics earlier this year ($30 billion is said to have been corruptly stolen), but who was on the verge of exposing to the Russian people the central role being played by Russia in Putin's war againt Ukraine.

According to Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov,

"Putin said the "cruel murder" had "all the signs of a contract killing" and called it a provocation -- a word meant to suggest Nemtsov was killed in order to blacken the government's reputation." (VoA : February 27, 2015)

No-one should be surprised that Putin, by using the word, "provocation", is rather dismissive of this brutal killing of Nemtsov, just as he was dismissive of the killing of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko.

Reacting to this expected statement of Putin, Gary Kasparov tweeted,

" '[Journalist Anna] Politkovskaya was gunned down. [Malaysian Airlines flight] MH17 was shot out of the sky [over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine]. Now Boris is dead. As always, Kremlin will blame opposition, or CIA, whatever.' " (ibid Voa) (my emphasis)

RT, Putin's international propaganda TV mouthpiece, immediately confirmed exactly what Kasparov said viz. As always, Kremlin will blame opposition, or CIA, whatever.' In this instance, the reporting in the west about Nemtsov's murder are simply, "fake stories".

"Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Nemtsov a personal friend and a "bridge" between the two countries. He said on his Facebook page that he hopes the killers will be punished." (ibid VoA)

What we now wait for is that the findings of Nemtsov about the direct involvement of Russia in eastern Ukraine should now be made public for the whole world to see.

(to be continued)