NEWSWATCH: Boris Nemtsov murder: Putin now governs mostly through terror & propaganda: Any plot would have been known by Kremlin

[“Boris Nemtsov murder: Putin now governs mostly through terror and propaganda; Any plot against Boris Nemtsov would have been known by the Kremlin. Putin either killed him or tolerated his death.” – The Daily Telegraph (UK) – February 28, 2015]

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ben Judah comments on the assassination in Moscow of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov. He also considers the current state of Russian government under Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since Nemtsov was a former high-ranking Yeltsin official, his assassination could mean that Putin is abrogating a promise to not touch Yeltsin or former Yeltsin allies.

Boris Nemtsov took not a step nor a breath that wasn’t under the intense surveillance of the FSB. Just like all opposition leaders in Russia. Nothing Boris Nemtsov did was not bugged, tailed, filmed or monitored by the secret police. It is quite simply impossible that this man could have been shot dead without the Kremlin knowing there was a plot afoot to kill him.

This means the murder of Boris Nemtsov was either ordered or allowed to happen: which come to exactly the same thing. That he could be killed like this has shaken the oligarchs and the officers of the Russian elite to their core. Boris Nemtsov was once Russia’s deputy prime minister and a protégé of Boris Yeltsin. He was almost picked as a successor instead of Putin. His murder means that the Putin’s solemn – and public – promise not to touch Yeltsin and his allies has been torn up.

The author suggests that Putin has ruled Russia through money, propaganda and terror, but that the money is dissipating, leaving propaganda and what could be heightening terror.

Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia with three things: money, propaganda and terror. When the Russian economy was booming and the oil price was over $100 a barrel, Putin ruled Russia almost entirely with money – throwing cash at the elites and at the people – with a small dose of propaganda and a tiny injection here and there of terror. Now the money is running out, the equation has shifted. Today, Russia is ruled mostly through propaganda and terror.

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