Via TASS:
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has expressed condolences to the family and friends of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician who had been killed in Moscow overnight to Saturday, the press service of the Russian government said.
"I am shocked by the cruel, cynical murder of Boris Efimovich Nemtsov. This is a persona tragedy for his relatives and friends. This is a great loss for our society, whose freedoms and interests he always defended," the press service said.
"Boris Nemtsov became one of the most talented politicians in the period of democratic transformations in our country. Up to his very last day, he remained a bright personality, a principled man. He acted openly, consequently and never betrayed his ideals. That is how he will stay in our memory," Medvedev stressed.
Writing on his blog, Aleksei Navalny notes that Nemtsov -- as an organizer of an upcoming anti-Kremlin rally and opposition leader -- was almost certainly under security services surveillance at the time of his murder last night.
The opposition has posted the route that Sunday's memorial march will take. Demonstrators will go from central Moscow's Kitai-Gorod district down to the River Moskva, along the embankment, up toward St. Basil's Cathedral and Kremlin walls, and across the bridge where Nemtsov was killed. From the bridge on the right hand side lies Bolotnaya Square, hallowed ground for the Russian opposition and the center of its protest activity in 2011-12. The march will end at the other side of the bridge.
The Kremlin statement expressing condolences to Nemtsov's mother, pledging that "everything will be done to ensure that the organizers and executors of this vile and cynical murder are punished."
Nemtsov was quoted earlier this month as saying that he feared Putin would kill him: "I am afraid Putin will kill me. I think he's the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine. I couldn't dislike him more."
In the same interview, Nemtsov quoted his mother as saying, "When will you stop scolding Putin? He will kill you!"
Amnesty International demands in a statement that the killing be "meaningfully investigated." It goes on to add that the it must be "promptly, impartially and effectively investigated." The group goes on to say:
“In the current climate of crackdown on freedoms of expression, assembly and association, this is a cold-blooded murder of one of those free voices whom the authorities have so actively sought to silence," said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Regional Deputy Programme Director for Europe and Central Asia.
“There is already a list of unsolved political murders and attack in Russia, the investigations of which were under ‘personal control’ of senior Russian politicians. We cannot allow Boris Nemtsov to become just another name on this list.”
Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee -- which styles itself as a kind of Russian FBI -- has taken charge of the case. The Investigative Committee's spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said in a statement posted on the agency's website that investigators are looking at several possibilities: that Nemtsov was killed to destabilize the political situation in Russia; that he was killed by extremists participating in the Ukraine conflict; that he was killed because of his business activity or some personal dispute. The Russian opposition has widely ascribed a political motive to his killing.
“At the moment, the investigation is looking at several versions: murder as a provocation to destabilize the political situation in the country, and the figure of Nemtsov could be his own kind of sacral victim for those who won’t stop at anything to reach their political goals. We are also looking closely at the version of an Islamist-extremist trail. The fact is that investigators have information that Nemtsov received threats due to his stance on the shooting of journalists in the office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Moreover, we are checking a version linked to the domestic Ukrainian events. It’s no secret that there are very radical figures who do not obey any authorities on both of the conflicting sides. But of course we have also not ruled out versions linked to the commercial activity of Nemtsov and his personal hostility toward him and also other domestic versions. All of these will be thoroughly checked. The very best forces of the Investigative Committee and Interior Ministry of Russia have joined the investigation.