Though his mother is Jewish, the
late Boris Nemtsov had been baptized by his Russian Orthodox
grandfather. As a practicing Christian respectful of his Jewish
heritage, he was a friend of Israel.
I
recall when, in 1993, our Israel Forum delegation was warmly welcomed
by him as Governor, in Nizhny-Novgorod ( formerly Gorky).
In 1998 he joined us, when the Wiesenthal Centre co-organized a conference on antisemitism at the Moscow City Hall. We met again in
2002, when he was negotiating with Chechen terrorists in the Moscow
theatre hostage crisis, and, thereafter, at the World Economic Forum in
Davos as more recently at a human rights rally in Moscow.
Nemtsov had become an indefatigable leader, forming the “Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption Party”.At that time, he was alleging corruption in the tenders for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi,
the town of his birth. This, reportedly, resulted in an attempt to murder
him with ammonium chloride.
His party was refused registration and he was
continuously arrested but persisted in his peace and pro-democracy
campaigns – most recently criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and
events in Ukraine.
He was murdered two days before due to leading
an anti-war march and to releasing a report claiming to prove the
presence of Russian army forces in eastern Ukraine.
Immediately after the assassination, his
papers and computer were confiscated from his apartment. The march was
cancelled, allowing in its place a silent procession of mourning.
President Putin condemned the killing and sent condolences to Nemtsov’s 86 year old mother, Dina Eydman. Meanwhile, the conspiracy
theories are beginning to circulate: “It was the CIA, Chechen Islamists,
Soviet veterans…”
One may draw certain similarities with another
recent murder – of a figure revered by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre –
Argentine AMIA bombing investigator, Alberto Nisman. In both cases,
gunned down before they were due to present a highly controversial
report
Police security, in both, apparently disappeared before the
killing. Both have refocused public opinion.
There is one slight difference: Nemtsov got
four bullets in the back. So far, noone has claimed it was suicide. May
their memory be for a blessing.
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