Why Russia’s Probe Into the Nemtsov Murder Does Not Stack Up

Official suggestion that Boris Nemtsov was killed by Islamists seems the least plausible explanation

Simon Shuster
March 10, 2015, TIME

Who knew Russia had such crack detectives — not just fast in their investigation of the murder of Boris Nemtsov but practically clairvoyant. Within a day of the dissident’s killing on Feb. 27, they offered a bundle of possible motives, predictably ranging from a business dispute to a love affair gone wrong, but with two big surprises. For one, they ignored the possibility that Nemtsov’s conflict with the Kremlin had anything to do with the murder. And then there was the theory bizarre enough to make the victim’s friends do a double take: the sleuths suggested that some religious fanatic could have killed him for insulting Islam.

Of all the powerful figures Nemtsov had opposed, insulted and tried to bring down to earth during his two decades in politics, the Prophet Muhammad was never one of them. Vladimir Putin certainly was, and so were many of the men in the Russian President’s inner circle. But a mere 10 days after Nemtsov’s killing, investigators appear to have settled on that most far-fetched motive in the case.

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