File Photo: Boris Nemtsov during a rally in Moscow on April 6, 2013. (Reuters)
Moscow:
Russian investigators today questioned five suspects over the killing of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov in a probe yet to reveal the motive for the brazen assassination in the centre of Moscow.
The suspects were detained a little over a week after Nemtsov, a longtime critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot four times in the back as he strolled with his girlfriend along a bridge in full view of the Kremlin and Red Square.
A spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, wrote on Twitter on today that the powerful body had asked a Moscow court to confirm the 'arrest of five people linked to the assassination of Boris Nemtsov. Investigations are ongoing.'
In Russia suspects are held for 48 hours before a court decides whether to formally extend their detention. The suspects were due to appear in court today, under heavy security, however it was not clear if all of them would be present.
There was no information about the identity of the fifth suspect, but the first four were revealed by state media to be from the volatile northern Caucasus region where Russia has fought two devastating wars against Chechen rebels and where security forces continue to clash with Islamist insurgents.
The FSB federal security service and Investigative Committee, which are working together to solve the murder that Putin denounced as a 'provocation,' yesterday announced the detention of Zaur Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev.
Albert Barakhoyev, secretary of the Security Council of Russia's Ingushetia republic, told state news agency RIA Novosti the men had been arrested in the republic, which borders Chechnya, along with Gubashev's younger brother and another person.
State news agencies reported that Dadayev was a deputy commander for the Chechen police while Gubashev worked for a private security company in Moscow.
However no information has emerged as to the possible motive the men could have had in killing the charismatic opposition leader. His allies believe his assassination was a hit ordered by the top levels of government determined to silence dissenters. The allegation has been strenuously denied.
Dadayev's mother was stunned at the arrest of her son.
'I can't believe it. He could not have committed this crime,' Aaimani Dadayeva told the Interfax news agency late yesterday.
Russia has 'crossed the line'
The audacious murder in one of the most secure parts of the Russian capital sent shivers through an opposition which has seen several critics of the Kremlin killed in recent years and accuses Putin of steadily suppressing independent media and opposition parties.
Nemtsov's daughter Zhanna Nemtsova, in an interview with CNN from Germany, said the murder was obviously 'politically motivated.'
'I think that now, Russia has crossed the line after this murder, and people will be frightened to express their ideas which contradict ... the official standpoint.'
Her comments echo that heard from Kremlin critics since the killing such as activist Alexei Navalny, who accused "the country's political leadership" of ordering a hit on Nemtsov.
Nemtsov had long complained of being followed and having his phone tapped.
Putin has described Nemtsov's killing as a tragedy that brought disgrace on Russia and vowed that everything would be done to bring to justice those who committed a 'vile and cynical murder.'
Fifth column
Many Russians say that failing direct involvement, Putin is to blame for whipping up hatred against the opposition by regularly referring to them as a 'fifth column' of traitors and spies - a message spread by all-powerful state media.
He first used the term fifth columnist - which originated during the Spanish civil war and refers to a group of people undermining a nation from within - after last year's annexation of Crimea which plunged Russia's relations with the West to Cold War lows.
Investigators have suggested Nemtsov's killers wanted to destabilise Russia while politicians have referred to a western plot.
But investigators are also probing the possibility he was assassinated for criticising Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict or his condemnation of January's killings at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris by Islamist gunmen.
At the time of his death, Nemtsov was believed to be working on a study detailing the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, a claim the Kremlin denies.
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