Boris Nemstov killed one day before his political rally

[Lauren Johnson]

from Fort Russ

Investigators are considering a personal motive scenario of the killing, as well as an contract killing by the Ukrainian sponsors of Nemtsov.

Izvestia reports that the investigators are considering several possible scenarios of Nemtsov's murder. They are not excluding the possibility he was killed for ordinary personal reasons.

"The young woman who was with Nemtsov at the moment of his murder is a citizen of Ukraine. We have established that she recently flew from Moscow to Switzerland to have an abortion. The investigators are trying to establish whether Nemtsov was her only partner, and we are not excluding the possibility there was a personal conflict over her," notes a highly placed law enforcement source.

Nemtsov himself went to Ukraine on many occasions and had many contacts with the representatives of the local political and business elites, which represent the "party of war."

"They could have given him means to destabilize the situation in Russia. They could have well expected him to use the money to create a schism within the Russian society. However, there was no schism, rather the oppositethere was a consolidation. Once they realized there was no result the sponsors decided to get rid of the politician who could not carry out his task," the same source describes the second scenario.

The third scenario also has political character.

"This could have been a contract killing whose objective was to strike a blow against the government through a provocation. Both internal and external adversaries may have chosen their "victim" to destabilize the situation in Russia. Nevertheless, one must express surprise at the choice of the target. Given the record-high popularity of the current government, Nemtsov was little more than an average person who played a minimal role in society," states the law enforcement source.

Those and other scenarios will be thoroughly investigated by the law enforcement.

As a reminder, Nemtsov was killed on Friday night in the center of Moscow on the Bolshoy Moskvoretskiy bridge.

According to preliminary information, the killer fired at least seven times at Nemtsov, hitting him in the back, then left the scene. Nemtsov died on the scene. The young woman who was with him was not injured.

J.Hawk's Comment: I suppose the fourth scenario would be that the Russian government had him killed, but that one is the least plausible of all. This is simply not how politics are conducted in Russia these days. Of the scenarios above, the personal motive actually sounds the most plausible at the moment. It seems unlikely that Nemtsov could have obtained large sums of money and disposed of them without attracting anyone's notice. Even if he did misuse them, why kill him? He would still be useful to the Ukrainians alive. There's always a possibility Ukraine's "war party" needed a martyr, of course, so their involvement cannot be ruled out entirely.





However, in the end, it does not seem coincidental that the young woman in question, a 23-year-old actress-model Anna Duritskaya, a native of Kiev, was with Nemtsov at the moment of his killing. She might have had other lovers; she most likely has relatives. At least one of them might not have been happy with her lifestyle choice. Moreover, a contract killer would have likely a) not needed to fire seven shots and b) would not have left a live witness on the scene.

And in front of the Kremlin?