European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia’s failure to investigate Boris Nemtsov’s murder
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Russian government failed to properly investigate the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov in 2015. The decision comes in response to a complaint filed by Nemtsov’s daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova.
The court concluded that the Russian authorities “failed to adequately investigate who had organized and commissioned” Nemtsov’s assassination as well as to “explore the allegations of a possible political motive” behind the murder and the “possible involvement of certain State officials.”
As a result of this failure, the court ordered the Russian authorities to pay Zhanna Nemtsov 20,000 euros in compensation.
Nemtsova’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that the ruling’s significance is “absolutely symbolic” but that it will serve as the “correct groundwork for the future” because the “Putin regime won’t last forever.”
The court noted in its press release that it had jurisdiction to consider the case because it was filed before September 16, 2022, when Russia stopped being a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
