NEWSLINK Washington Post: Boris Nemtsov’s last act of courage

IN THE final years of his life, Boris Nemtsov never gave up on politics in Russia, even when many others were discouraged or frightened away from standing up to President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Nemtsov, once in the front ranks of Russia’s post-Soviet reformers, in the last decade and a half became a persistent Putin critic. To some, he was a cheerful yet faded political figure. But he was stubborn, sustained by the hope that if only he could get the word out, if only he remained engaged, Russia could recover a chance for democracy. He published reports calling attention to Putin excesses, such as the lavish preparations for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which he said “highlighted the main flaws of Putin’s system in a nutshell: Lawlessness, corruption, high-handedness, cronyism, incompetence, and irresponsibility.”