‘Russians told me Putin’s secret’
A day before Russia’s lone voice of political dissent Boris Nemtsov was shot four times in the back, he allegedly scrawled an explosive message on a white sheet of paper.
Fearing spies, the soon-to-be-dead man wrote, rather than spoke, these words to his close aide Olga Shorina.
“[Russian] paratroopers… have got in touch with me,” it said.
“They are frightened to talk.”
• Indonesia suggests death penalty ‘moratorium’
• Amid Bali Nine despair, AFP says ‘make us diplomats’
• Razor attack on US ambassador
Global news agency Reuters, which first revealed the scribbled note, has seen the original, but cannot confirm its authenticity.
If real, the finger of blame points to Moscow, says some of Mr Nemtsov’s friends, Reuters reports.
The charismatic politician was killed while strolling across the Moscow River Bridge with his Ukrainian model girlfriend, within sight of Vladimir’s seat of power, the Kremlin.
Since the early 1990s, the former state governor and deputy prime minister — originally trained as a physicist — had fought for a better Russia, free of corruption, poverty and Vladimir Putin.
For more than a year, the Ukrainian government has blamed Russia for the flood of ‘local rebels’ fighting a so-called civil war inside the country.
Six thousand people have been killed so far in the pseudo-war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has reportedly amassed one of the world’s largest fortunes while in power, denies any involvement of the nation’s army in Ukraine.