MOSCOW: Tens of thousands of people marched in central Moscow Sunday to honour the memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin in the highest-profile assassination of Vladimir Putin's rule.
A sea of grim-faced supporters, holding Russian flags and Nemtsov portraits, marched in the drizzle from a packed Moscow square to the bridge over the Moskva where the 55-year-old was shot in the back shortly before midnight Friday.
In what appeared to be the largest opposition gathering since anti-Kremlin rallies in 2011-12 brought more than 100,000 people into the streets, marchers honoured Nemtsov's memory while condemning Moscow's stance on Ukraine.
"These bullets are for each of us," read a huge banner at the head of the march while others stated "I am Boris", "I am not afraid" and "Propaganda kills."
"Stop the war" in Ukraine, said others.
Organisers put the crowd at 70,000 while police estimated it at 21,000.
Marching with his young son, engineer Alexander Akulin, dubbed Nemtsov's death "political murder."
"Political terror will intensify now," he warned.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, urged Russia to carry out a "thorough, transparent, real investigation not just (into) who actually fired the shots, but who if anyone may have ordered or instructed this or been behind this".
Around 6,000 people, some wrapped in Ukrainian flags, also turned out in Russia's second city, Saint Petersburg.
"I am carrying a Ukrainian flag because he fought for the end of the Ukraine war. And they killed him because of that," said marcher Vsevolod Nelayev.
Hours before the killing, Nemtsov went on radio to urge Russians to join him at a Sunday rally in Moscow to protest against the Ukraine war and Putin's rule.
After his murder the protest was turned into a memorial march, with authorities approving a turnout of 50,000.
Comments
Comments are closed.