19:13, 3 March 2021

Mikhail Maglov claims significant gaps in case on Nemtsov's murder

Flowers and Boris Nemtsov's portrait at the Memorial to the victims of political repressions in Sochi. Photo by Svetlana Kravchenko for the Caucasian Knot

The criminal case on the murder of Boris Nemtsov did not include all the materials at the disposal of investigators, claims Mikhail Maglov, the editor of the Scanner Project, one of the co-authors of the journalistic investigation about the involvement of natives of Chechnya in the politician's assassination.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 1, the "Mediazona" released the investigation entitled "How Boris Nemtsov was killed. Complete chronology of calls and travels, communication with Kadyrov's close associates and new group members", prepared jointly with activists engaged in the Scanner Project. Authors of the investigation pointed to the involvement of several natives of Chechnya in the assassination of Boris Nemtsov: they were not sentenced, although identified.

Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in Moscow on February 27, 2015. In 2017, the court found five natives of Chechnya guilty of committing the murder, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 11 to 20 years.

On March 2, the "Ekho Moskvy" posted on its YouTube channel a video interview with investigative journalist Mikhail Maglov, the editor of the Scanner Project.

"Both our materials, released in November [2020] and yesterday, are based primarily on the materials that the investigators had at their disposal," said Mikhail Maglov.

Interviewer Olga Zhuravlyova asked a question why, while the investigators "had such serious information" and, accordingly, knew about other possible participants in the organization of the assassination, did not interrogate them.

"I can only redirect the question, which I myself have ... And two, perhaps three, persons are able to answer this question. They are General Tutevich, the head of the investigating group, Mr Krasnov, General Prosecutor of Russia, who originally investigated the case, and Mr Bastrykin, the chief of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). They should answer the public's question of why key witnesses were not interrogated," Mikhail Maglov said.

The editor of the Scanner Project does not rule out that not all the materials collected by the investigators were included in the criminal case on the Boris Nemtsov's assassination.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 3, 2021 at 11:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.