Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov

It was short after Midnight of 27 February when Boris Nemtsov, 55-year old politician known for being one of Putin’s fiercest opponents, was killed by 4 firearm shots on the bridge that leads to the Red Square, one of the most surveilled places of the country.

Cruel but not solitary destiny, the one of the former exponent of extraparliament opposition, since the same fate had befallen other ‘free voices’ of the Russian society, including Anna Politkovskaja, the journalist of Novaya Gazeta who struggled to denounce the was in Chechnya.

In two days he would take part in the protests against the war in the Ukraine, thus that rally of March, 1 became his rally. Dozens thousands people in fact flocked to the Red Square to shout a message of peace and courage: "I am not afraid ".

The spokesperson of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, the day after the ambush defined him as “little more than a common citizens”, as it had been said following the death of Ms. Politkovskaya. Still obscure is the reason why, in the face of these declarations, Putin then made known that he will “personally follow” the investigation.

"It had been ages since a politician was killed in Russia: they were arrested, persecuted, jailed, defamed, silenced, but not murdered in the street - wrote Anna Zafesova in La Stampa -. A fate that could befall the activists, journalists, NGO exponents. But an internationally famous politician such as Nemtsov seemed to be safe". Worried for the lack of transparency, the associations for human rights like Amnesty International immediately demanded quick, effective and impartial investigations.