Boris Nemtsov

Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. Nemtsov was one of the most important figures in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy. He had a successful political career in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin. From 2000 until his death, he was an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was assassinated on 27 February 2015, beside his Ukrainian partner Anna Durytska, on a bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow, with four shots fired from the back. In the weeks before his death, Nemtsov expressed fear that Putin would have him killed. In late June 2017, five Chechen men were found guilty by a jury in a Moscow court for agreeing to kill Nemtsov in exchange for 15 million rubles (US$253,000); neither the identity nor whereabouts of the person who hired them is known.