(EDM) It took a week for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to produce a pair of plausible suspects in the shocking murder of Boris Nemtsov on February 28 (see EDM, March 2). Last Saturday (March 7), FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov reported to President Vladimir Putin that two men implicated in the crime were under arrest; and on Sunday, another man killed himself with a hand grenade in Grozny (Newsru.com, March 7). The authoritative statement put an end to the flurry of wild speculations in the mainstream media, which had been eager to mix rumors about Nemtsov’s private life with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Rather, the official announcement focused attention on the “Caucasian connection,” since the names of the suspects—Zaur Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev—appeared distinctly Chechen (Rbc.ru, March 3). This breakthrough in the completely non-transparent investigation fit well with the instant solution found by Chechnya’s despotic ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, who accused Western special services of organizing the murder in order to provoke internal conflict in Russia (Gazeta.ru, February 28). It remains only to connect the murder suspects to the Chechen rebels or the wider North Caucasus insurgency for this tragedy to morph into a story perfectly catered to the needs of the Russian propaganda machine. […]
See the full article © Eurasia Daily Monitor
