Feb. 26 (UPI) — Several thousand Russians marked the second anniversary of the slaying of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov by marching Sunday outside the Kremlin in Moscow.
Nemtsov, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot in the back during a walk with his girlfriend in Moscow on Feb. 28, 2015. Five people, all ethnic Chechens, have been on trial in Moscow since October in the death. Russian officials have denied involvement in Nemtsov’s slaying.
Nemtsov, 55, had been a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the late 1990s. Two days before his death, he planned to attend a large opposition rally in Moscow.
On Sunday, marchers carried flags, posters and quotes from Nemtsov toward a square in the city. Some read “The war with Ukraine was a crime of Putin,” “Russia without Putin” and “I am against the annexation of Crimea.” Marchers, according to a BBC reporter, were not allowed to travel to the Moskvoretsky bridge where Nemtsov was shot dead but many left flowers there afterward.
Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is recovering abroad after an illness that left him in a medically induced coma, urged people to participate in the march. His symptoms were similar to a near-fatal illness in 2015 that he said was from deliberate poisoning.
Rallies also took place in St. Petersburg and other cities, including Nemtsov’s hometown of Nizhny Novgorod.
Also Sunday, anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin, 34, was released after 15 months in a Siberian prison — the first and only person jailed under new laws against protests. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction Wednesday.
Officials deny his accusations he was tortured by staff while in prison.
