An activist guarding Nemtsov's Moscow memorial died after an attack by a pro-Putin thug. Investigators are treating it as a ‘fight’

Russian investigators are reviewing the death of Ivan Skripnichenko, the activist who died roughly a week after a pro-Putin thug attacked him while he was guarding the makeshift memorial to Boris Nemtsov at the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Police are reportedly treating the attack as a “fight,” not an assault. A forensic expert has been appointed to review his case, though it’s unclear if investigators are examining the attack a week before Skripnichenko died, or just his death on August 23.

Investigators say they currently believe Skripnichenko died from cardiomyopathy, a disease affecting the heart muscle that puts people at risk of sudden cardiac death. One of Skripnichenko’s fellow activists told the website Mediazona that he believes he died from a delayed pulmonary embolism caused by the attack.

Skripnichenko was a member of the opposition political party Yabloko, which says his death is the result of being attacked by “an aggressive supporter of the existing regime.” The party is demanding a full investigation into Skripnichenko's death.

On the evening of August 15, Skripnichenko was reportedly guarding the memorial, which is regularly dismantled by city cleanup crews and pro-Kremlin thugs, when an unidentified man approached him and tried to speak to him. When Skripnichenko turned away, the man allegedly punched him in the nose. According to the blogger Ilya Varlamov, other activists overheard the assailant shout, “What, you don’t like Putin or something?”

Doctors later diagnosed Skripnichenko with a broken nose. He was discharged at first, but hospitalized again a few days later “to correct complications related to the fracture.” On August 23, Skripnichenko died.