Mourners pay tribute to Boris Nemtsov in Russia

One by one, thousands of mourners filed past the white-lined coffin of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov yesterday, many offering flowers as they paid their last respects to one of the most prominent figures of Russia’s opposition.

So many came that when the viewing ended after its scheduled four hours, a line of people hundreds of metres long still waited outside the Sakharov Centre, named after the Soviet-era dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov.

Nemtsov was shot to death late Friday while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin with a companion. No suspects have been arrested.

The killing has deeply shaken Russia’s small and marginalised opposition. Many supporters suspect the killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for Nemtsov’s ardent criticism of president Vladimir Putin. Authorities have suggested several possible motives, including a provocation aimed at tarnishing Putin’s image.

Those who filed by ranged from committed activists to ordinary citizens.

“He was our ray of light. With his help, I think Russia would have risen up and become a strong country. It is the dream of all progressive people in Russia,” said Valentina Gorbatova, 80.

Nemtsov, 55, had been a deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and was widely seen as a rising young reformer. However, in the Putin era, Nemtsov’s party lost its seats in parliament. In an interview hours before his death, he denounced Putin for his “mad, aggressive” policies in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, EU-Russian relations have taken a further dip after the EU condemned Moscow for banning Polish and Latvian officials from entering the country to attend the funeral.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz called the bans a “high affront”. Latvia, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said denying MEP Sandra Kalniete entry “flies in the face of basic principles of humanity”.

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