Boris Nemtsov murder: chief witness 'prevented' from leaving Russia

Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya, who was with opposition politician when he was shot dead, complains of being kept under guard in Moscow

Anna Duritskaya, who was with Boris Nemtsov when he was shot, recalls the night of the murder

Agence France-Presse in Moscow-Monday 2 March 2015
The girlfriend of the Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, with whom she was with when he was gunned down outside the Kremlin late on Friday night, has said she is effectively being held prisoner by Russian investigators.

Anna Duritskaya, a 23-year-old model from Ukraine, told an independent Russian television channel that she remembered little of what had happened due to being in shock.

“I don’t want to answer questions about what happened on the bridge. I don’t want to talk about this,” she told TV Rain. “I am in a very difficult psychological condition and I cannot talk about this any more now. I feel bad ... I saw no one. I don’t know where he came from, he was behind my back.”

Nemtsov was shot four times in the back as he walked across a bridge close to the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral after having dinner. He will be buried in Moscow on Tuesday, while investigators have announced little progress in apprehending those responsible for gunning down the opposition politician.

CCTV appears to show Boris Nemtsov shortly before murder
Duritskaya said the killer had got into a passing white car and sped away, but she did not see his face, nor the model or number of the car. She said she was staying in an apartment belonging to her friends in Moscow, but was being guarded by police around the clock and was not allowed to move around freely.

“I’ve told them everything possible and I don’t know why I am still on Russian territory, as I want to go back to my mum, who is ill, and who is in a very difficult psychological state,” said Duritskaya. “For three days, I’ve been driven around in police cars with guards to the Investigative Committee, and questioned. And nobody has told me when I’ll be let go and why I am being held here.”

Duritskaya said she had known the politician for about three years. Nemtsov had a reputation as a womaniser, but his friends and colleagues say the idea that a jealous lover could have been responsible for a professional hit in the very heart of Moscow is deeply implausible. Duritskaya said she was being questioned as a witness rather than a suspect, but was nevertheless not allowed to leave Russia.

Asked whether she would attend Nemtsov’s funeral on Tuesday, Duritskaya said: “I’m not allowed out, don’t you understand? Probably I won’t be able to go.”

A Moscow court also rejected a request from opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be let out of jail to attend Nemtsov’s funeral. Navalny, who along with Nemtsov was one of the organisers of a protest march that had been due to take place on Sunday, was jailed for 15 days ahead of the march for handing out leaflets. He will be released on 6 March. Late last year, Navalny’s brother Oleg was jailed for 3.5 years, in a case widely seen as punishment for Navalny’s political activities.

In Geneva, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called the killing a “heinous crime which will be fully investigated”. He said President Vladimir Putin “immediately handed down all instructions and is ensuring special control over this investigation”.

However, others have expressed doubt at whether the investigation can possibly be independent, given the widespread suspicion among the opposition that the Kremlin is at least indirectly responsible for the death.

On Russian television, veteran lawyer Genri Reznik criticised Putin, whose spokesman announced immediately after the killing that it was “100 percent a provocation” meant to create panic in Russia or make Putin look bad. Reznik said knowing how the Russian system works, this would have sent a signal to investigators of how they should work on the crime.

A portrait of murdered Russian opposition veteran leader Boris Nemtsov above floral tributes near St Basil’s cathedral in Moscow. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA

Indeed, when Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin spoke to explain what leads were being followed up, he did not mention the possibility of radical nationalists or anyone linked to the government. Instead, he said the main lines of enquiry were personal issues, squabbles within the opposition, Islamic extremism, or someone linked to Ukraine.

There was also confusion over how much of the incident had been caught on camera. Kommsersant newspaper reported that all the cameras on the bridge either had grainy footage or were turned off “for repairs” at the time of the incident. A Moscow city spokesman denied this, however, and said all the relevant video had been passed to investigators.

So far, in the only CCTV footage to be released, by Russian channel TV Centre, shows two people believed to be Nemtsov and Duritskaya walking on the bridge, but at the moment of the killing the pair are obscured by a passing snow-clearing machine.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people marched through Moscow to pay their respects to Nemtsov, in a rally that largely went off without incident though was watched over closely by thousands of police officers.

Mourners will be able to say a final farewell to Nemtsov at a ceremony in Moscow on Tuesday, after which he will be buried at the capital’s Troyekurovskoye cemetery.