New CCTV footage has emerged showing the
moment Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in the
shadow of the Kremlin on Friday evening.
The grainy video, recorded from the other side of the Moskva River,
contradicts earlier reports that Mr Nemtsov was killed by assailants
shooting from a vehicle that slowed down when passing him and his
girlfriend, Anna Duritskaya, as they walked home.
Instead, the assassin apparently hid in a stairwell leading off down
from a bridge. As Mr Nemtsov passed, the killer emerged and began
shooting at Mr Nemtsov’s back, killing him with four pistol rounds. He
then hurriedly climbs into an arriving getaway car, and is driven away.
The new details confirm the high levels of preparation required for the
attack, which both Russian investigators and President Vladimir Putin
have said has all the hallmarks of a contract killing. Opposition
politicians claim it may have been the work of the Kremlin, of which Mr
Nemtsov was a prominent critic.
“You
would have needed to coordinate very closely between Nemtsov and the
car… It is clear that it was a very sophisticated and professional
killing,” according to security expert Andrei Soldatov. Up to 15 people
working in three teams could have been involved, he said.
The actual moment of the shooting is not visible
in the CCTV footage, which was released by state-owned television
channel TVTs, because at that precise moment Nemtsov and his assailant
are hidden from the camera by a snow-clearing truck.
As the truck moves out of view, the silhouette of Nemtsov’s body is visible lying on the pavement. Ms Duritskaya runs up to the truck driver — who stops after a few hundred metres — and then back again to her dying boyfriend.
Several people appear to walk past the body over the next minutes, and traffic continues passing over the bridge, a main road in central Moscow. A police car only arrives at the scene 13 minutes after the killing.
The area of Moscow around the Kremlin and Red Square is one of the most closely guarded places in Russia. Dozens of CCTV cameras are visible on the red crenellated Kremlin walls, and it is unlikely that Russian investigators do not have more footage of the murder.
The high level of preparation and training apparently significantly reduces the options for what group could be responsible, and may rule out the involvement of disgruntled Russian nationalists or Islamic fanatics, both theories floated by Russian investigators.
Organised criminal gangs in Russia do not have the capability to launch such an attack, according to the security expert, Mr Soldatov. “[The killer] had training from the security services or was involved with the security services,” he said.
As the truck moves out of view, the silhouette of Nemtsov’s body is visible lying on the pavement. Ms Duritskaya runs up to the truck driver — who stops after a few hundred metres — and then back again to her dying boyfriend.
Several people appear to walk past the body over the next minutes, and traffic continues passing over the bridge, a main road in central Moscow. A police car only arrives at the scene 13 minutes after the killing.
The area of Moscow around the Kremlin and Red Square is one of the most closely guarded places in Russia. Dozens of CCTV cameras are visible on the red crenellated Kremlin walls, and it is unlikely that Russian investigators do not have more footage of the murder.
The high level of preparation and training apparently significantly reduces the options for what group could be responsible, and may rule out the involvement of disgruntled Russian nationalists or Islamic fanatics, both theories floated by Russian investigators.
Organised criminal gangs in Russia do not have the capability to launch such an attack, according to the security expert, Mr Soldatov. “[The killer] had training from the security services or was involved with the security services,” he said.
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