MOSCOW -- Russia's security service head said Saturday that two suspects in the killing of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov have been detained. Russian news reports later cited an official as saying one of them had served with police troops in Chechnya.
The short announcement of the detentions by Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov prompted only skepticism and weak satisfaction from the opposition.
Bortnikov, in comments shown on state television, said the two suspects were from Russia's North Caucasus region, but gave no details other than their names.
He said they were "suspected of carrying out this crime," but it wasn't clear if either of the suspects was believed to have fired the shots that killed Nemtsov as he and a companion walked over a bridge near the Kremlin on Feb. 27. No charges were immediately announced, but the two were expected to appear in a Moscow court today.
Bortnikov didn't say where the detentions took place, how they were conducted or what led agents to the suspects.
However, the state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti said they were detained in Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya, citing Ingush Security Council chief Albert Barakhoev.
One of them, Zaur Dadaev, served in a battalion of Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya, Barakhoev was quoted as saying.
He said the other, Anzor Gubashev, had worked in a private security company in Moscow, according to the reports.
Barakhoev also was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying two others were seized at the same time as the suspects. But there has been no official announcement of their detention. Dadaev's mother, Aimani, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the two others were her nephews.
The Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry continue to search for other people linked to the murder, Russia's Investigative Committee said Saturday on its website.
Nemtsov's killing shocked Russia's already beleaguered and marginalized opposition supporters. Suspicion in the opposition is high that the killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for Nemtsov's adamant criticism of President Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov, 55, was working on a report about Russian military involvement in the eastern Ukraine conflict.
But Russia's top investigative body said it was investigating several possible motives, including that he was killed in an attempt to smear Putin's image. It also said it was looking into possible connections to Islamic extremism and Nemtsov's personal life.
Many believe that Nemtsov's death in a tightly secured area near the Kremlin wouldn't have been possible without official involvement and could be an attempt to scare other government foes.
Putin, who had dubbed Nemtsov's killing a "provocation," made no comment on the detentions announced Saturday.
Putin told Russia's police Wednesday to guard against extremist threats to the state aimed at provoking civil conflict similar to the one in Ukraine. Russia needs to rid itself of the "shame and tragedy" of killings, such as that of Nemtsov, "right in the center of the capital," he said.
Putin, 62, has cracked down on political foes since he was first elected in 2000, stamping out opposing voices in parliament and tightening the state's control over the media. He stepped up regulation of the Internet and nongovernmental organizations after protests three years ago
One of Nemtsov's closest allies in the opposition, Ilya Yashin, said on Facebook that "It's hard to judge whether these are the real performers or if the investigation went down a false track."
In any case, he said, "it's extremely important that the matter not be limited to detention of the shooters, whether these are the real killers or not. The key task is the identification and detention of who ordered" the attack.
Yashin called on the authorities to release any substantial evidence they had, such as pictures from the security cameras, so the public would know that the case was real.
"For the time being, it's very skimpy information, which tells us little, but it's good that the first results of the investigation has appeared," another opposition leader, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, was quoted as telling the news agency Interfax.
Kremlin critics say the spiteful nationalist propaganda on state television, which cast Nemtsov and other liberals as Western stooges, helped prepare the ground for his killing.
chechnya connections
Chechnya, where Dadaev reportedly worked, was embroiled in two wars over the past 20 years between Russian forces and separatists increasingly allied with fundamentalist Islam. Although the insurgency died down in Chechnya several years ago, attacks attributed to Islamic militants sporadically occur in nearby regions.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has imposed an Islam-tinged rule on the region, including the mandatory wearing of headscarves by women. Kadyrov, himself a former rebel, has been widely accused of rampant human-rights abuses including executions and abductions of opponents.
In some previous killings of Kremlin critics, especially the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, there has been wide criticism that those who ordered the killing haven't been identified or prosecuted.
Four Chechens were among the five convicted in Politkovskaya's killing, which was widely believed to be in retaliation for her criticism of Kadyrov and Russia's actions in Chechnya.
In recent weeks, Kadyrov and his supporters assumed a highly visible role in the anti-Maidan movement that seeks to block any attempt to re-create in Russia the kind of political upheaval that forced a change in government in neighboring Ukraine. More broadly, anti-Maidan figures support the conservative, nationalistic, anti-Western ideology that Putin has made a signature of his third term. The Maidan movement refers to the Ukrainian uprising that ousted Kremlin-allied President Viktor Yanukovych.
In a large march through central Moscow on Feb. 21, young supporters of Kadyrov carried signs saying "Putin and Kadyrov will prevent Maidan in Russia" and "It's the enemies of Russia who want Maidan."
Other signs singled out Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny, another opposition leader, as organizers of the Maidan movement in Russia. State television also has repeatedly attacked them as "enemies of the people" and members of a "fifth column" working for Western powers.
Leaders of the anti-Maidan movement have denied any role, saying the assassination was likely plotted abroad. Kadyrov has said he suspected Western intelligence agencies intent on destabilizing Russia of killing Nemtsov.
An outspoken critic of the Russian government, Nemtsov was shot in the back by a man who had been hiding on a staircase leading up to the bridge across the Moscow River, according to police accounts. After shooting Nemtsov at least four times in the back, the shooter fled in a light-colored car driven by someone else.
Security camera video shown on TVC, a Moscow television network, showed a man jumping into a passing car and riding away seconds after Nemtsov was shot. The shooting wasn't visible on the video because the area was obstructed by a snowplow parked on the bridge although there was no snowfall that night.
Nemtsov was walking with a young Ukrainian woman, Anna Duritskaya, when he was shot. The woman has returned to Ukraine after questioning by police and RIA Novosti on Saturday quoted her lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, as saying she hasn't been called back to Russia for testimony in connection with the detentions.
The murder prompted more than 50,000 people to hold a vigil in Moscow on March 1. Prominent officials and businessmen attended Nemtsov's funeral last week.
"I have no doubt Russian special services were involved in the killing," Vladimir Milov, Nemtsov's close associate and former deputy energy minister in Putin's first government, said after the burial. "The place at all times should be crawling with police and security agents, and the killers must have acted in unison with them if they managed to get away so easily."
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz of The Associated Press; by Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times; by Ilya Khrennikov of Bloomberg News; and by Sergei L. Loiko and Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 03/08/2015