Monday 9 March 2015

Arrests for Boris Nemtsov murder

5 suspects arrested over Nemtsov murder, 1 'confessed' - court
Moscow's Basmanny district court has arrested five people in connection with the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition figure, who was gunned down last week.


RIA Novosti / Maksim Blinov


RT,

8 March, 2015


Two judges are reviewing the charges against the five people brought before the court by the prosecutors on Sunday.

Two of them are Zaur Dadaev and Anzor Gubashev, who were identified as key suspects in the killing of Nemtsov after their detention on Saturday.
The prosecutors asked the court to arrest the duo by April 28, the current deadline for the investigation, saying that otherwise they may flee or interfere with the investigation.


According to the judge, who ordered Dadaev’s arrest as requested by the prosecution, he confessed his involvement to the police. The accused didn’t comment on this during the court session.

Gubashev pleaded not guilty to the crimes he is charged with.

The other individuals, who may have had a hand in the crime, are Gubashev’s brother Shagit and two identified as Ramzat Bakhaev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov. The request for their arrest has been reviewed separately by another judge.

The suspects denied their ties to the crime, but we have evidence of their guilt. It includes forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts,”an investigator told the court.

View image on Twitter
BREAKING UPDATE: Zaur Dadayev admits guilt, says he's implicated in murder - court http://on.rt.com/5f99cr 

The trio denied their involvement, with Eskerkhanov claiming to have an alibi. But the judge ordered their arrests as well.

Eskerkhanov and Bakhaev have been remanded until May 8 and Shagit Gubashev - until May 7.

The sixth suspect, Beslan Shavanov, 30, reportedly committed suicide on March 7, when police came to his apartment in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. The man, according to LifeNews channel, had barricaded himself in the apartment.

In response to the police’s demand he surrender, he [the suspect] threw a hand grenade [at police forces],” a law enforcement source told the news channel. Shavanov then detonated another grenade, killing himself.

The President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, commented on the arrest of the five suspects on his Instagram account on May 8. He specifically spoke about Dadaev, saying he knew him “as a patriot of Russia” who used to serve as deputy regiment commander in one of the Chechen Republic’s interior ministry units.

Kadyrov has ordered a “thorough investigation” of Dadaev’s retirement from the unit, saying that he “does not understand true reasons and motives” behind his decision.

However, the Chechen leader noted that the suspect, as a deep believer, had been “shocked” by the Charlie Hebdo scandal and all the “comments in support of printing the cartoons.”

Kadyrov has also confirmed Shavanov “died during attempts to detain him”.
Nemtsov was killed by a gunman a few meters from the Moscow Kremlin, triggering a flurry of condemnations and calls for a swift investigation. The assassination happened two days ahead of an opposition rally, which Nemtsov helped to organize.


While political motive is considered the most likely in the killing, the investigators said they were considering other scenarios, including a business or personal conflict. Likely political motives behind the killing according to the investigators include a provocation aimed at destabilizing the situation in Russia, possibly by Ukrainian radicals, and revenge by Islamists for Nemtsov’s support of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo following an extremist attack.


Important developments in the Nemtsov murder case (UPDATED)



8 March,2015


It took the combined efforts of the FSB/SKR/MVD one week to make the first arrests in the case of the murder of Nemtsov: a group of 7 men, all from the North Caucasus were arrested.  A sixth man killed himself with a hand grenade  in Grozny when he was about to be arrested.
Potok Camera
Potok Camera

The Russians used the combination of the Potok” HD camera monitoring network and intercepts of all the cellular phone network calls made from the city center that evening to zero in the car used by the killer to escape which soon lead to the entire group.
The authorities seem pretty confident that they got the right men.  They are:
  • Zaur Dadaev (Заур Дадаев) – the supposed killer who, according to unconfirmed reports, was the deputy commander of the Chechen special operations battalion “Vostok”.
  • Shagit Gubashev (Шагит Губашев)
  • Anzor Gubashev (Анзор Губашев)
  • Khamzat Bakhaev (Хамзат Бахаев)
  • Tamerlan Eskerkhanov (Тамерлан Эскерханов)
  • Shagid Gubashev (Шагид Губашев)
  • Ramzan Bakhaev (Рамзан Бахаев)
The last two have not, as of this moment, been charged with anything.
This is a big group of people and it appears that the security services have caught if not the full network or gang, then at least most of it.
Zaur Dadaev
Zaur Dadaev

According to breaking news from Moscow, the main suspect, Zaur Dadaev, has now confessed that he is the person who killed Nemtsov.
The rapid arrest of all these men is, of course, good news for the security services, but considering that Nemtsov was murdered in one of the most monitored and protected locations on Russia, it is hardly surprising.  I had expected an arrest withing 48 hours, and I bet you the Russians knew who done it very soon, but they wanted to arrest the full network.
Whether these arrests will provide the real answers is, alas, very uncertain.  We can, for example, remember the case of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya who was also initially blamed on Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov and which eventually lead to two trials (along with several more murders).  Eventually, a group of Chechens was found guilty and sentenced to long jail terms, but the identity of the people who ordered that hit was never discovered.
I am very concerned that in this case again we will go along the same scenario.  Chechens, especially those who served in the Chechen security forces, make ideal culprits as they can be presented either as criminal thugs, or religious fanatics, or both.  Add to that the fact that Chechen mobsters have very close ties to the Ukrainian oligarchs and that Chechens are fighting on both sides of the conflict in the Donbass and you will immediately get the picture: it will be exceedingly hard to prove who ordered the murder and why.
So far my prediction that patsies will be found is proven correct and ideal culprits have been found.  I just hope that this will be just the beginning of a real investigation and not the end of it.
The Saker
UPDATE: Russian source now have indicated that the security services  are looking another 4 men suspected of having provided the weapon used in the crime.

Nemtsov Murder: Case Closed?


By J.Hawk


8 March, 2015

Russian media is widely reporting that Nemtsov's murder was master-minded and carried out by Zaur Dadayev (pictured above) who had already made a confession. The motive for the killing was reported as Nemtsov's stance on the Charlie Hebdo incident, and his criticism of Islam, Muslims, and the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov, for his part, sought take some of the heat off Dadayev, who after all was a decorated combat veteran who had risked his life in combat against Islamist militants in the Caucasus.

Is that the end of the story? We may never really know. On the face of it, the explanation offered is not wholly implausible. It may well be that Dadayev felt Kadyrov, who was quite outspoken in his criticism of Nemtsov and other Russian neo-liberals, might approve of this act even though he had not ordered it.

It is more likely that Dadayev is genuinely responsible for the crime, but that he is not revealing his true motives or instigators of the murder. It's unlikely Kadyrov would have ordered it--he would not do anything that the Russian government would automatically disapprove of. It's possible Dadayev has links to Chechen militants fighting on the side of the Kiev regime, but does not want to reveal them due to the strength of clan loyalties (we don't know whether Dadayev is in any way related to these militants, but it cannot be ruled out). Finally, Dadayev may have been acting on behalf of a Chechen or Ingush faction, clan, or family that entered into conflict with Nemtsov on personal or business grounds. Again, the sense of loyalty would prevent Dadayev from implicating the party behind the murder, even if it meant taking the full blame for it.

It is also possible that the story has been released by the Russian investigators in order to induce a false sense of security among the party responsible for recruiting Dadayev to commit the murder. For all we know, Dadayev has spilled the beans, but the Russian government is protecting him and his relatives from retribution by insisting he has taken the full blame for the murder.



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