Nemtsov’s final work on Russian troops in Ukraine is published posthumously

Boris Nemtsov’s colleagues have completed and published the report on Russian military activity in Ukraine that the slain politician started but didn’t live to finish. Titled Putin: War, the 62-page report is now available in Russian at putin-itogi.ru (though the site is experiencing problems currently) and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s civic organization, Open Russia.

According to the report, Nemtsov came up with the idea for the project and in early 2015 first began collecting materials about Russia’s military presence in Ukraine. 

Boris didn’t manage to finish the report. On February 27, he was killed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, just outside the walls of the Kremlin. His colleagues, friends, and the people who value his work came together and finished this project. The report is based on the materials Boris collected. The table of contents, handwritten notes, documents—everything that he left behind was used to prepare the final text.

Several prominent figures, including economists Sergei Aleksashenko and Alfred Koch, as well as journalists Aider Muzhdabayev and Oleg Kashin, helped finish the report.

The report says about 70 Russian soldiers died in eastern Ukraine in January and February 2015, in the battle for Debaltseve (which the rebels ultimately captured). These soldiers, the report claims, were discharged from the Army while technically on leave.

Putin: War also offers a rough estimate of the cost of the Ukrainian conflict to Russia’s national budget. According to economist Sergei Aleksashenko, the first 10 months of the fighting cost Russia 53 billion rubles (about $1 billion). Russia has spent another 80 billion rubles ($1.6 billion), the report claims, on refugees from Donetsk and Luhansk.