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Live Blog: Nemtsov Memorial

Final Summary

-- Thousands turned out today for a public memorial ceremony for opposition leader Boris Nemtsov at the Andrei Sakharov rights center. Family and friends attended his burial service.

-- At least two foreign representatives were prevented from attending Nemtsov's funeral. Bogdan Borusewicz, the Polish senate speaker, was denied a visa and a Latvian MEP, Sandra Kalniete, was refused entry upon landing in Moscow.

-- Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the funeral of the former deputy prime minister. Instead, he sent his representative in parliament, Garry Minkh.

-- Anna Durytska, who was with Nemtsov when he was shot, was allowed to return to her home in Ukraine. She says she didn't see who killed Nemtsov.

-- Live stream

NOTE: Times are stated in local time in Moscow

17:34 3.3.2015

Wrapping up the liveblog, but read the full story on today's events here.

Slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has been laid to rest following an emotional farewell ceremony attended by thousands of mourners.

Nemtsov, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27, in the country's most shocking killing in years. He was 55.

Nemtsov was buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow on March 3 after mourners streamed into the Sakharov Center, a prominent civil-rights organization, and piled flowers next to the open casket at a public memorial service.

"I am not saying goodbye because heroes never die," Dmitry Gudkov, one of a just a few opposition politicians left in parliament, said at the ceremony, which ended with a long line of mourners still waiting outside to pay their respects.

Black-and-white photos of the former deputy prime minister, whose career stretched from the promising days of growing democracy following the 1991 Soviet collapse to what Kremlin critics say is a clampdown on dissent under Putin, hung on a brick wall behind the coffin at the Sakharov Center.

Mourners in winter coats filed past, a few wiping away tears, in a public ritual that has followed the killings of several prominent Russians who have challenged Putin's government since he came to power 15 years ago.

"Boris Nemtsov was one of the most prominent representatives of Russian intelligentsia and opposition. Now there's a gap in our ranks," homemaker Yelena Ustinova, 43, told RFE/RL outside the building.

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15:27 3.3.2015

It is widely believed that Boris Yeltsin once considered Nemtsov as a potential successor. Yeltsin's widow, Naina Yeltsina and daughter, Tatyana Yumasheva, are pictured at the memorial, below.

15:22 3.3.2015

Beautiful photos of the memorial service by Novaya Gazeta's Evgeny Feldman.

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14:38 3.3.2015

Nemtsov will be buried at 3:30 PM Moscow time.

13:56 3.3.2015

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