Nemtsov’s daughter: TV propaganda factor behind his killing

MOSCOW (AP) — The daughter of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has blamed state propaganda for fomenting hatred and intolerance that contributed to his killing in February.

Zhanna Nemtsova said in a column published Tuesday in the business daily Vedomosti that responsibility for her father’s death was shared by employees of state-controlled TV who cast him and other opposition leaders as “national traitors.”

She urged the West to introduce sanctions against those involved in “criminal propaganda.”

Nemtsova, who worked for the independent RBC news channel, was quoted by RBC as saying Monday she had recently left Russia amid threats.

Her father was shot dead just outside the Kremlin on Feb. 27. The investigators have arrested five suspects, all Chechen, but haven’t yet determined who ordered the slaying. The suspected triggerman was an officer in Chechnya’s police force, and the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov praised him as a good patriot of Russia.

Federal investigators have failed to get to another suspect, a senior officer in Kadyrov’s security force, who was under protection in Chechnya and then reportedly was whisked abroad.

Nemtsova’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, said the stalled probe highlighted dangers for leaders of Russia’s embattled opposition. “The leaders of Chechnya have received medals instead of summons,” he said.

Prokhorov also pointed at a sudden, mysterious illness of Nemtsov’s close associate, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has remained in a serious condition a week after his hospitalization. Doctors said he was suffering from kidney failure, but no cause has been determined.

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