President Barack Obama said on Monday that the killing of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov is a sign of a worsening climate in Russia where civil rights and media freedoms have been rolled back in the last several years.
Nemtsov was gunned down near the Kremlin on Friday night in a gangland-style murder.
"This is an indication of a climate at least inside of Russia in which civil society, independent journalists, people trying to communicate on the Internet, have felt increasingly threatened, constrained. And increasingly the only information that the Russian public is able to get is through state-controlled media outlets," Obama told Reuters in an interview.
"I have no idea at this point exactly what happened. What I do know is more broadly the fact that freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of information, basic civil rights and civil liberties inside of Russia are in much worse shape now than they were four or five, ten years ago," he said.
He said the killing is "part of what has allowed I think Russia to engage in the sort of aggression that it has against Ukraine," he said.
Nemtsov's supporters have blamed the authorities for his killing.
Barack Obama Wants Joe Biden To Pull Out Of US Presidential Race: Report "A Mistake": Zelensky Brushes Off Biden's Putin Mix-Up Watch: How Zelenskyy Reacted When Biden Called Him "President Putin" 'Entire NEET Paper Solved In 45 Minutes Before Exam?': Top Court To Centre "Had God On My Side": Donald Trump Recounts Being Shot At During Rally 32 Dead In Bangladesh Unrest, Protesters Set Fire To State TV Headquarters Google Brings AI To US Broadcast Of Paris Olympics Video: Children Jump On E-Rickshaw, Chase Foreigners For Money In Delhi "Every Time I Try To Eat Healthy" - Video Creator's Editing Skills Amaze Internet Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.