The desire for Ukraine’s annexation to Russia is now strengthened, Vladimir Putin and his communicators made no attempt to hide the goal of rebuilding the former Russian Empire. The 2014 invasion of Crimea was only the first step, as were destabilizing activities in the Donbass region, but the rising tsar did not act unperturbed. And in this scenario, Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister in the Boris Yeltsin era, had proved a real thorn in his side as he resisted the invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Nemtsov, also known for his corruption allegations in Russia, was shot dead on February 27, 2015, just days before an antiwar protest. Today we know that Vladimir Putin’s main opponent was pursued by a man belonging to a secret team of the Putinian Kremlin involved in two assassination attempts on two other opponents of the rising tsar: Vladimir KaraMurza and Alexei Navalny.
Corruption in Russia is a doubleedged sword. If, on the one hand, it allows you to maintain power, on the other hand, you can get documents belonging to the FSB itself, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The Bellingcat investigative team managed to acquire, through brokers, the original data of a database called “Magistral”, which was used by the Russian agency to track not only the movements of persons of interest such as Boris Nemtsov, but also all agents of the ” FSB. Unter Bellingcat identified the one who followed Vladimir Putin’s main opponent until a few days before his assassination: Agent Valery Sukharev.
Bellingcat wasn’t the only investigative team that got hold of the magistral data. All findings are the result of material also collected by the BBC and The Insider, partly free of charge from sources who have access to copies of the Kremlin’s secret database.
The scene of the murder, right in the center of Moscow
Sukharev, the FSB’s key man in this investigation, managed to track Boris Nemtsov during 13 trips in the last year of Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy’s life. First of all, Agent Sukharev knew Nemtsov’s movements “live, as evidenced by the fact that he quickly booked tickets on the same planes that were useful for the trip. In fact, Sukharev booked the flight in the summer of 2014 ten minutes after Nemtsov booked it.
Although Sukharev was not physically involved in the Navalny affair, he was in contact with at least four members of the Kremlin squad who were among the 7 FSB agents sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for the attempted murder. Phone records obtained by investigators show 145 conversations between Sukharev and the same agents in the months before Navalny was poisoned.
Alexei Navalny during a demonstration to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Boris Nemtsov
As Bellingcat reports, Sukharev, whose phone numbers are currently out of service, was no ordinary FSB agent. According to their analyses, he was the most experienced officer in tracking down opponents of the Kremlin in recent years. He also stalked Vladimir KaraMurza in 2015 and followed him up to two days before the poisoning. Using a false identity, thanks to which he called himself Nikolay Gorokhov, he followed Navalny during 18 trips of the 2017 presidential campaign. The same false identity was used by Sukharev between 2018 and 2019 to track the poisoned and fallen writer Dmitry Bykov in a coma in 2019.
According to Bellingcat, the stalking agents were not the perpetrators of the attacks. Their only function would be to collect the evidence necessary to determine the habits of the targets and to supply all the information to the chemical weapons specialists of the FSB Institute of Criminal Studies, a unit originally set up by the KGB in 1977.
The place where Boris Nemtsov was killed, not far from the Kremlin
The accumulated evidence and the reconstruction of events further underscore the impossibility of real political action by the opposition against Vladimir Putin since he came to power. It cannot be denied that Boris Nemtsov was a real obstacle and threat to the Kremlin’s upkeep. Not only was he opposed to the invasion of Ukraine, but he also supported international sanctions against the Russian leadership and called for an independent investigation into the downing of Malaysian MH17 plane in eastern Ukraine.
Activists burn a photo of Vladimir Putin during a Boris Nemtsov memorial rally in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 1, 2015.
The release of the investigation was announced for today, Monday 28th March, by Bellingcat investigators on Friday 25th March. Yesterday, Sunday, March 27, Ruslan Geremeev, accused of masterminding the murder of Boris Nemtsov, was identified. He is not in Chechnya or any other country as a refugee (he has never put himself on trial), but at the head of the Chechen army in Mariupol in support of the Russian army. This was announced by leader Ramzan Kadyrov through a video published on his VK profile, calling him “my dear brother Ruslan.
At the head of the Chechen troops taking part in the siege of Mariupol is Ruslan Geremeyev, suspected of being one of those responsible for the assassination of Boris Nemtsov
By questioning the FSB’s involvement in the attacks and killings, some logical questions could be asked: If the agents knew by heart every activity of the Kremlin’s main opponents, why had they failed to intercept and stop the Chechen perpetrators of the murder? Boris Nemtsov in the center of Moscow? And while it’s true that Ruslan Geremeyev is also officially accused of instigating the murder, it’s not clear why, despite the FSB’s stalking skills, he escapes trial and today works with Vladimir Putin to conquer Ukraine. . . A very different fate than that of Zaur Dadayev, one of the men accused of killing Boris Nemstov, who, as reported back in 2015, may have been forced into a confession under torture.
Zaur Dadayev during the trial for Nemtsov’s murder in 2017
