The International Circassian Council (ICC) is shocked and saddened, and strongly condemns the cold-blooded murder of the leading Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. The murder occurred on Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge near the Kremlin in central Moscow. The deceased was an economic reformer while governor of one of Russia’s biggest cities, Nizhny Novgorod, and a former Deputy Prime Minister under the late President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, also a sharp critic of the present situation in Russia. While walking on the sidewalk, Mr Boris Nemtsov, was shot four times in the back and faced inevitable tragic death in the evening of the 27th of February, said in a recent interview that he feared he would be killed because of his opposition to the war in Ukraine.
As it appears that the horrible crime came to confuse the scene in the ranks of the Russian opposition, the International Circassian Council and its associates and supporters both at homeland and in Diaspora, offer their sincere condolences and sympathies to Mr. Nemtsov’s wife, his four children, family, friends and colleagues, wishing that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, appropriate punishment will be implemented, democratic procedures and values will be followed and the main task will remain accomplishing peaceful and civilized ways and means throughout the civil society.
Late Mr. Nemtsov always believed Russia could change from the inside and without violence, he had spoken few hours before the crime on Ekho Moskvy Radio calling on Muscovites to attend an opposition march, which was planned to take place on Sunday, and seems that the murder took place in anticipation to prevent people from expressing public opinion freely in a peaceful and democratic way. He was a man of peace as he died just before a Moscow march against the war in Ukraine which he was actively promoting.
This brutal heinous murder should attracts the attention to human sufferings endured by many peoples and nations ruled directly from Moscow, where the Circassian nation is one of them, unable to attain their confiscated rights and looking forward to be treated according to proper human rights values, laws and norms. It is a sad episode that reminds of the tragedies of hundreds of journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, politicians and human rights activists such as Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasiya Baburova, Natalya Estemirova, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, and all victims who perished for their lofty principles they had embraced, while in most times the real perpetrators where not caught and/or punished.
The International Circassian Council joins the voices of democratic and peace-loving activists, forces and entities for calling upon the Russian society to act within the voice of reason, hoping that the international community, will intervene to enhance the efforts of respecting the human life, which should be taken in account against murder, oppression and the crimes still going on, both in the center or in the regions, whether against individuals, people’s or nations.
Adel Bashqawi Iyad Youghar
February, 28, 2015