Six suspects have been tracked down in the recent murder of key Russian opposition figure and former Deputy PM Boris Nemtsov. Five are in custody, with a sixth having blown himself up while police were trying to capture him in Grozny.
Two of the five held are already facing charges, and more are expected. all five of the held men are reportedly Chechens, and one of them Zaur Dadaev, has confessed to involvement in the killing.
While the speculation had been that Nemtsov’s murder was related to his position as an opposition leader, Dadaev was said to have been motivated by Nemtsov’s support for the publication of blasphemous cartoons in French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
In early January, Islamist gunmen attacked Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in Paris, killing 12, and single out cartoonists in particular. The international response in favor of the magazine has fueled resentment among many Muslims, and Nemtsov’s outspoken support for the magazine may well turn out to have been the motive for his murder.
Well, that's an angle I didn't expect.
But please, don't link to CNN. The video that goes with article is typical sickening neocon-slanted junk.
All this is starting to sound a litle bit too convenient. Chechens/ISIS supposedly in Ukraine. Now, a former Chechen police chief is "said" by Ramzan Kadyrov, Putin's "colonial governor" in Chechnia, to have killed an opponent of Putin supposedly because he is alleged by Kadyrov to have "supported" Charlie Hebdo. This is the same Kadyrov who wanted to raise a military force in Chechnia to fight the Ukrainians. All that, as Mr Ditz goes to rather too great a length to emphasise, tends to deflect suspicion away from Putin but also conveniently avoids any suggestion of "destabilisation". There will thus be no further murders and that tends to point the finger at Putin or his supporters. That all this comes from one of Putin's most virulent supporters. I wouldn't take this story seriously.