Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 8 – At a hearing convened
by the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE yesterday, Margareta Cederfelt,
deputy head of that body, read out a report devoted to the investigation of the
murder of Boris Nemtsov or more precisely Vadim Prokhorov says in New Times
“to the absence of a reliable investigation of this evil crime by Russian law
enforcement.”
This report “did not establish a
motive for this horrific crime,” but it did make clear that it was a political
one. More important it shed a bright light on the failure of Russian officials
to investigate the possibilities that such a perspective offers by interviewing
officials in Moscow and Chechnya (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/182595).
In presenting his summary of the
Cederfelt presentation, Prokhorov, a Russian lawyer, suggests that its most
important component consisted of a full protocol of the interrogation in London
of former Chechen deputy prime minister Akhmed Zakhayev from October 4, 2018,
by Prokhorov.
Below are the key passages of this
protocol:
“I
received information about planned punishment on the leaders of the Russian
opposition in the first days of February 2012.
This information came from someone close to Ramzan Kadyrov and Adam
Delimkhanov. As we remember, at the end of 2011, after he beginning of mass
actions of protest in Moscow, the then head of the Russian government Vladimir
Putin, together with the head of his security service Viktor Zolotv flew to
Chechnya and remained there three days.
“Putin
came to Chechnya to arrange the transfer to Moscow of a battalion ofhte
Akhmad-Khadzhi Kadyrov regiment with the goal of using them to suppress the
expected mass actions in Moscow. The young Chechens, when saying goodbye to
their relatives, said they were going to Moscow ‘to impose constitutional
order.’
“Approximately
two or three weeks after the departure of Putin and Zolotov from Chechnya, I
received information directly from Chechnya that the Russian leadership had
prepared a plan for the liquidation of the leaders of the Russian opposition.
Boris Nemtsov and Garri Kasparov were to be physically liquidated, while Sergey
Udaltsov and Aleksey Navalny were to be imprisoned on manufactured criminal charges.
“I
took this information very seriously because the source was very reliable and information
he had supplied on other occasions had been confirmed. I decided to make contact
with the leaders of the Russian opposition and warn them about the dangers
threatening them.
“Both
ere in Moscow and I did not have direct links with them. Therefore, I asked the
honorary consul of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the Kingdoom of Norway,
Ivar Amundsen to ake contact with them and organize our meeting in Oslo. Literally a day later, Amundsen got in touch
with me and reported that he had spoken with Andrey Piontkovsky and that in the
very short term Piontkovsky ad Nemtsov would be in Oslo.
“On
February 27, 2012, I flew to Oslo where on February 28 I had a meeting with
Nemtsov and Piontkovsky. I related to them the information mentioned above and expressed
my concern on this account. During this conversation we discussed the
possibility that Putin and Zolotov might use the so-called Kadyrovites to
physically liquidate Nemtsov and Kasparov.
“It
seemed to me at the end of our conversation, my contacts did not fully believe
in the possibility of such a turn of events. But literally on the next day,
February 29, 2012, Piontkovsky telephoned me and reported that Putin in a
public speech on television had declared about ‘a sacred victim’ among the opposition
which in fact confirmed the information I had received. After this, I did not
see Nemtsov again.
“In
my opinion, the plan for the physical liquidation of the leaders of the Russian
opposition was not carried out in 2012 because Vladimir Putin still hoped for an
improvement in relations with the West after his illegal return to a third term
as president. After 2014, relations with the West were undermined irretrievably
and the plan regarding Nemtsov was carried out.
“I
am deeply convinced that behind the murder of Boris Nemtsov stands directly
Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
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