Germany Foreign Minister Warns against Speculation on Nemtsov Murder

“I don’t think we should speculate on the issue,” Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told German public broadcaster ARD, “Nobody knows the perpetrator yet.”


BERLIN, March 2, (TASS) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautioned on Sunday against speculation over the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

“I don’t think we should speculate on the issue,” Steinmeier told German public broadcaster ARD, noting that: “Nobody knows the perpetrator yet.”

“We hope for a swift and transparent investigation into the case,” he said.

“Russia has lost in the person of Boris Nemtsov one of the most experienced politicians,” Steinmeier added. “This is also a big loss for Russia’s opposition.”

Nemtsov, 55, was killed while walking along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Preliminary data suggests he was gunned down from a car passing by the bridge. Four bullets hit him in the back and he died on the spot.

He was a co-chair of the RPR-Parnas liberal democratic political party and a deputy of a regional legislature, the Yaroslavl city duma. Nemtsov held a number of Russian government positions in the 1990s.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into the “killing” and “illicit arms trafficking”. Several theories of the murder are being considered. Investigators do not rule out that this was a contract killing.

Nemtsov will be buried at Moscow’s Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on March 3.

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