(EDM) The photograph that hit millions of computer and smartphone screens late Friday (February 27) night, Moscow time, has instantly become a clear-focused image of what Russia has become amidst the Ukraine war: The night-time photograph in question shows a joyfully decorated bridge leading to the iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral and group of policemen standing hesitantly over a body, wrapped in a plastic sheet, lying on the pavement. The body was of Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, and it was indeed too important to touch because Nemtsov was a man instantly recognizable in any crowd, even if Russian state TV had not shown his joyful smile for many years. To say that he was a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime would be an understatement: He was the face and the soul of Russia’s liberal opposition, marginalized as it is. In the last few weeks, he had focused his irrepressible energy on organizing a spring rally together with anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who remains under arrest for the crime of distributing leaflets about this rally in the Moscow metro (Moscow Echo, February 27). […]
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