Russians in anger pay homage to Nemtsov
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Russians in anger pay homage to Nemtsov

Russians in anger pay homage to Nemtsov

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(AGI) Moscow, March 3 - Foreign ambassadors, the Russian deputyPrime Minister and one minister, and thousands of ordinarycitizens paid homage to Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leadermurdered on Friday night near the Kremlin. Hundreds lined up infront of Moscow's Sakharov Centre, waiting in silence for hoursto place a flower on the coffin of one of the symbols ofdissent under the Putin administration. After four hours ofvigil, the coffin was taken outside the large red-brick space,and the crowd voiced the motto 'Heroes don't die'. Later theburial ceremony took place at the cemetery of Troyekurovskoye,where journalist Anna Politkovskaya, killed outside her home inMoscow in 2006, has been buried. "Those bullets were not meantto kill only Nemtsov but all of us, the democracy in Russia.Rest in peace my friend, your work will be carried on," saidGennady Gudkov, a vocal opponent of the Kremlin, standingbefore the bier alongside the victim's elderly mother, brother,sons and ex-wife. Top government officials, like ArkadiDvorkovich and Serghei Prikhodko, Agriculture Minister NikolaiFyodorov, and the Head of the Human Rights Council at theKremlin, Mikhail Fedotov, walked by. Then came the ambassadorsof the 28 EU states, U.S. Ambassador John Tefft, former UKPrime Minister John Major, and the Polish deputy ForeignMinister, Conrad Pavlik. The Italian Ambassador, CesareRagaglini, expressed the wish that the culprits be found assoon as possible and handed over to the courts, 'in order tore-establish a serene atmosphere'. Nemtsov's former liberalpolitical colleagues and his long-time friends also attended,notably Mikhail Kasyanov, co-president of the Parnas party, hisyoung assistant and activist Ilya Yashin and the widow offormer president Yeltsin, Naina Yeltsina. There were protestsfrom Brussels over the denial of visas to certain EUdignitaries who wished to attend, like Bogdan Borusewicz,president of the Polish Senate and the Latvian EMP SandraKalniet. Also absent was Aleksei Navalny, the top oppositionleader serving a 15-day detention - a comrade of Nemtsov's,even if he was often in disagreement with him. The youngUkrainian model Anna Duritskaya returned to Kiev afterdelivering a rather unclear testimony. Russian investigatorsdenied that her passport had been withdrawn and affirmed thatshe is ready to collaborate. Ukrainian President PetroPoroshenko awarded Nemtsov the Order of Liberty, the mostprestigious to be awarded to a foreigner, and said "He was apatriot and a friend to us.". .
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