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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

11:06 1.3.2015

Hundreds have come out to demonstrate in Yekaterinburg. One activist estimates 1,500 but we can't confirm number.

10:57 1.3.2015

Kseniya Sobchak writes about how Nemtsov looked after her fondly when she was a child and her father, Anatoly, was one of Russia's most important politicians; and then, about how they became friends during her adulthood.

"He admired my inner freedom," she says. "He was an honest, sparkling, bright man. He lived fast and died like a true fighter. He was a brilliant orator and was charismatic -- such that there are now no others."

At his last birthday party, this October, he whispered, "'You're cool Sobchack, even if you're a woman.' But from him it was nice to hear."

10:35 1.3.2015

From Russian cartoonist Sergei Yolkin.

10:26 1.3.2015

10:24 1.3.2015

Well known journalist Vladimir Pozner writes that he's been abroad since the murder of Nemtsov.

He says the tone of coverage by U.S., British and French media has been the same: "Directly or indirectly, it is the work of Vladimir Putin." But Pozner himself "strongly" disagrees.

"Boris Efimovich Nemtsov long ago stopped representing any sort of political threat to Putin and his entourage," he says. "Yes, he was one of the most prominent opposition figures, but the opposition today is negligible."

He also dismisses the popular Kremlin theory that the murder was an opposition provocation.

23:08 28.2.2015

That concludes our live-blog for February 28. Our coverage will resume on March 1 with the planned funeral march.

23:07 28.2.2015

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) condemned the murder of Boris Nemtsov in a statement:

“The brutal slaying of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov just outside the Kremlin appears to be an attempt to silence those in Russia wanting to see their country move away from the authoritarianism, corruption, and lawlessness of Vladimir Putin’s regime. At the very least, Putin has created an atmosphere that condones and even encourages such actions,” he said. “Boris Nemtsov sought a better future for his people and believed in a strong partnership between our countries. We must remain committed to his vision of a free and democratic Russia that is at peace with itself and its neighbors.”

22:24 28.2.2015

"People continue to place flowers after midnight at the place of the murder of Boris Nemtsov"

22:03 28.2.2015

21:55 28.2.2015

Nadia Tolokonnikova, one of the members of Pussy Riot, says on Facebook that Nemtsov once advised her and her fellow band members to get bodyguards, approaching her at an opposition march.

"We shrugged carelessly, but Boris insisted and thoughtfully offered to help us find him," she writes. "We then did not listen. And he felt danger. But he did not run from it."

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