Slain Anti-Putin Leader Is Buried as Allies Accuse Kremlin

The funeral of murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov took place in Moscow after thousands paid their last respects, while his close allies blamed President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s security services for the killing.

Nemtsov, who was 55, was buried at the Troekurovskoe cemetery on Tuesday after mourners, many bearing flowers, had lined up for hours to file past his open casket at a memorial service in the city. He was shot four times from behind while walking on a bridge just steps from the Kremlin last week before he was slated to lead a protest against Putin.

Nemtsov was killed “with the participation of the government (security services),” Alexey Navalny, Russia’s most popular opposition figure, said in a posting on his blog “or a pro-government organization under orders from the political leadership of the country (including Vladimir Putin).”

The murder of Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s, prompted more than 50,000 to join a march in his memory on Sunday. Opposition activists, including Nemtsov and Navalny, had originally planned a rally in a suburb of Moscow, betting that Russia’s gathering economic crisis would revive public support for their campaigns against Putin.

‘Watershed’ Killing

“I have no doubt the Russian security services are behind this,” Vladimir Milov, an opposition politician and former deputy energy minister who co-authored a report with Nemtsov accusing Putin’s regime of corruption, said after the funeral. “It’s a view that prevails among people I speak to, but many are afraid to talk about it.”

The killing is a “watershed,” Milov said. “Now people who came out against the authorities, planned some actions, are really very afraid and many want to leave. It’s a test -- will we endure or not?”

The opposition has “no choice” other than to continue, Dmitry Gudkov, a member of the Russian parliament who supports the protest movement, said after the funeral. Blame for Nemtsov’s death lies with the authorities “directly or indirectly,” he said, and the country’s elite fear “that the situation is getting out of control.”

Navalny Accusation

Navalny, who was jailed for 15 days on Feb. 20 for handing out protest leaflets, had his request to attend the funeral refused by a Moscow court. He wrote in his blog that the only question in his mind was whether Nemtsov was specifically targeted for assassination or whether there had been an order to carry out an act that would resonate widely in society.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the accusations.

Deputy Prime Ministers Arkady Dvorkovich and Sergey Prikhodko, carrying red flowers, attended the memorial service for Nemtsov at the Andrei Sakharov Museum in Moscow, named for the physicist and dissident who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, now an opposition activist, former U.K. Prime Minister John Major, billionaire Mikhail Fridman and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft joined mourners who passed through a brick-walled room, lined with photographs of Nemtsov and past the open casket.

“It’s a terrible sign for Russia today,” Anna Kuritsina, 30, a translator from Moscow, said while standing in line, holding a red carnation. “I am frightened for the future. There is more uncertainty now than there was even in the 1990s.”

Flowers, Applause

Naina Yeltsina, widow of the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin, said that her husband “loved Boris Nemtsov very much,” as she paid her respects, Tass news service reported.

Supporters applauded and chanted “Russia will be free” as the hearse bearing Nemtsov’s body drew away from the museum to go to the cemetery. Several hundred people gathered as priests conducted the funeral ceremony and the coffin was lowered into the grave, which was covered with flowers.

The economic crisis “has already arrived” and the opposition must meet as soon as possible to try to win public support, Gudkov said, despite “fairy tales” on state television portraying them as traitors and agents of the U.S. State Department. “Sooner or later, people will understand,” he said. “In the battle between the fridge and the television, the fridge always wins.”

‘Vile’ Murder

During Putin’s third term in office, the country’s relations with the U.S. and European Union have deteriorated to the worst point since the Cold War over a conflict in Ukraine that has killed more than 6,000 and displaced more than 1 million people. Russia’s economy is set to shrink 3 percent this year, the first contraction since 2009, hit by falling oil prices and U.S. and EU sanctions.

Putin said in a telegram of condolences to Nemtsov’s mother that everything would be done to punish the organizers of the “vile and cynical” murder.

Russia’s opposition has blamed the government for creating an atmosphere that led to the slaying after anti-Putin activists were labeled “fifth columnists” on state television and at pro-Kremlin protests.

Nemtsov was assassinated in one of the country’s most heavily guarded spots, where security cameras monitor practically every inch. Russia’s Federal Guard Service said on Monday that its cameras at the Kremlin didn’t record the killing, which took place away from their area of surveillance, RIA Novosti reported.

Security Cameras

The head of a Moscow charity organization, Mitya Aleshkovskiy, contradicted this statement after publishing photographs on his Facebook page on Monday that he said were taken on the night Nemtsov was killed. Aleshkovskiy, a former photographer, wrote that the pictures showed that cameras on the Kremlin wall pointed “exactly at the place of the murder.”

Grainy footage from a security camera on the opposite side of the bridge, released by the TVC television channel, appears to show the killer escaping from the scene. The moment of the shooting is blocked by a snow plow on the road next to Nemtsov.

Anna Duritskaya, the Ukrainian model who was with Nemtsov when he was gunned down late on Friday, said that the killer had approached from behind before escaping.

“I didn’t see the man,” she told Russia’s TV Rain in an interview on Monday. “Turning around, I only saw a light-colored car leaving, but I didn’t see what model or its registration.”

Putin has taken the investigation under his “personal control” and believes the killing to be a provocation, Peskov said on Saturday. Russia’s criminal investigative committee has said it is looking at several possible motives, including whether Nemtsov was a sacrificial lamb to destabilize Russia or if Islamist extremists angry over his support for French magazine Charlie Hebdo killed him.

“Even without the state propaganda, the attitude to Nemtsov was negative,” Alexandra Borisova, 24, a computer programmer from Moscow, said in line at his wake. “In Russia, they don’t love liberals.”