Who was the prominent Russian opposition politician and public figure killed recently in the very center of the capital for the history of our country? Since the versions Biographies of Boris Nemtsov on Wikipedia- are constantly changing, we consider it necessary to acquaint you with our dossier on the deceased.
- the failed successor of the first president of post-Soviet Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who later played the role of a kind of "father of Russian democracy." Boris Efimovich Nemtsov in the "dashing nineties" he was also the head of the Nizhny Novgorod province and deputy chairman of the Government of Russia. Then he spent some time in the shoes of a businessman.
Biography of Boris Nemtsov
Not enjoying significant popularity in the country in the last period of his life, he tried to stay afloat as one of the leaders of a liberal-minded political group.
Being in the leadership of the RPR-PARNAS party, as a result of cunning political intrigues "squeezed out" from Vladimir Ryzhkov, he advocated the support of Alexei Navalny, the only popular politician in this political segment. There is an opinion that by doing so, he is trying to keep his beloved afloat by "adhering" to the strong figure of Alexei Navalny. In recent years, he was a member of the Bureau of the Federal Political Council of the United Democratic Movement "Solidarity" (since 2008), co-chairman of the People's Freedom Party "For Russia without arbitrariness and corruption."
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov(October 9, 1959, Sochi - February 27, 2015, Moscow) - Russian politician and statesman, deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma of the sixth convocation, one of the founders and leaders of the Solidarity UDM, co-chairman of the RPR-PARNAS political party, member of the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition.
During the period 1991-1997 Nemtsov was the first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Then he moved to work in the Government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy (1997) and First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government (1997-1998). In 1997-1998 he was a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
At the time of his work as governor and vice-premier, he was the youngest Russian politician in such high positions (in April 1998, this kind of "record" was broken by the appointment of Sergei Kiriyenko, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation).
In 1998, he created the Young Russia liberal movement, which then became one of the founders of the Right Cause coalition (1998-2000) and the Union of Right Forces party. he was elected several times to the Russian parliament, in 1990 he was elected a people's deputy of the RSFSR, in 1993 he was elected to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in 1995-1997 he was a member of the Federation Council as a governor.
In 1999-2003, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, where he served as deputy chairman of the State Duma and head of the Union of Right Forces faction. After 2003, he worked in business and was a freelance adviser to the President of Ukraine.
After the split in the "Union of Right Forces" (when members of the same party decided to unite in "Just Cause") in 2008 Nemtsov was one of the initiators of the creation of the opposition democratic movement "Solidarity".
In 2009, with the support of Solidarity, he was nominated for the post of mayor of Sochi and took 2nd place in the elections after the candidate from the ruling party. Since 2012 Nemtsov was a co-chairman of the political party "Republican Party of Russia - Party of People's Freedom" (RPR-PARNAS). known for publishing a number of reports on corruption, as well as one of the organizers and participants of the "March of Dissent" (2007), "Strategy-31", protest rallies "For Fair Elections" (2011-2013) and marches against hostilities on the territory of Ukraine ( 2014-2015). In the regional elections on September 8, 2013, he was elected a deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma at the head of the list of the RPR-Parnas party. was shot dead on the night of February 27-28, 2015 in Moscow.
Origin of Boris Nemtsov
Born on October 9, 1959 in Sochi in the family of Efim Davydovich, deputy head of the construction department Nemtsov(b. 1925) and pediatrician, Honored Doctor of Russia Dina Yakovlevna Eidman (b. 1928). Later, in the TV show "Two Against One", he said that "Jewish blood flows" in him. According to the memories Nemtsov, his paternal grandmother was Russian and in childhood she baptized him in secret from her Jewish mother, which caused her great displeasure.
Education and early years of Boris Nemtsov
He studied in Gorky, where he received secondary and higher education. In 1976 he entered the radiophysics department of the Gorky State University named after M.V. N. I. Lobachevsky, where his maternal uncle Vilen Yakovlevich Eidman taught. cousin Nemtsov's brother, the son of Vilen Eidman - Igor Eidman also studied at Gorky University, in 1997 he moved to Moscow.
Then he worked in research institutes. He dealt with the problems of plasma physics, acoustics and hydrodynamics. In 1985, together with his uncle, he was a co-author of V. V. Kurin in the article "Harbinger and side waves when impulses are reflected from the interface between two media." In 1985 he defended his dissertation and received a PhD in physics and mathematics (topic: "Coherent effects of the interaction of moving sources with radiation").
In those years, he worked as an English tutor. He also tried himself in literature - namely, he wrote poems and stories under the pseudonym Ben Aidman.
In March 1990, he was elected a People's Deputy of the RSFSR for the Gorky National Territorial District, was a member of the Coalition of Reforms bloc and the Left Center - Cooperation faction.
During the presidential elections in Russia in 1991, he was a confidant of Boris Yeltsin in the Nizhny Novgorod region. From August 27, 1991 to April 18, 1994 he was the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On November 30, 1991, a decree of the President of the RSFSR was signed on appointment of Nemtsov head of administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1993, he was elected to the Federation Council, his election campaign, as the Kommersant newspaper wrote, was financed by a businessman with a prison record, Andrei Klimentyev.
Activities of Boris Nemtsov in the banking sector and its consequences (loss of assets by Russia)
In 1994, the Bank of New York transferred $2 million in the Nizhny Novgorod region, an American banker of Russian origin, Natalya Gurfinkel-Kagalovskaya, was responsible for the operation. The transfer was declared erroneous, but the Nizhegorodets bank, which was in a state of bankruptcy, used this money and paid off its creditors. The US Embassy in Russia turned to Nemtsov, who, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, instructed the director of Nizhpoligraph, a large state enterprise in Nizhny Novgorod, to take out a $3.5 million loan from an Inkombank branch secured by his new administrative building, which, being federal property, was not subject to privatization. However, thanks to the actions of Anatoly Chubais, who was then the head of the State Property Committee, the deal was completed.
Of the loan received, according to investigators, $2 million was transferred to the Bank of New York. However, the loan was not returned, and the mortgaged building became the property of Inkombank. At the beginning of 1998, a criminal case was initiated on the fact of the illegal alienation of federal property, the investigators conducted interrogation of Nemtsov.
In 1997, former adviser Nemtsov Andrey Klimentyev, with a criminal record, said at a new trial that Nemtsov first asked him to pay the Bank of New York a $2 million debt. However, since Klimentyev did not have free money, he turned to Nizhpoligraf. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" wrote in 2003 that the value of the mortgaged building is 10 times higher than the mortgage and " Boris Nemtsov's scam could cost the state $30-40 million.”
Connections and trials between Boris Nemtsov and Andrey Klimentyev
According to the Kommersant business publication, the election campaign Boris Nemtsov in the elections to the Federation Council was financed by the previously convicted Andrey Klimentyev, with whom Nemtsov has known since the 1980s. On the Boris Nemtsov and another candidate, Klimentyev spent 100 million rubles. Klimentyev entered Nemtsov's inner circle, becoming his adviser. As Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote, “Klimentiev was not only a friend and adviser for a long time Governor Boris Nemtsov, but was actually the main Nizhny Novgorod businessman, who largely determined Nemtsov's economic policy».
On January 20, 1994, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Navashino Shipbuilding Plant Oka, which was state-owned at that time, entered into a loan agreement in the amount of $30 million. Part of the loan in the amount of $18 million was transferred to the plant for targeted expenses, the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod Region became the guarantor of the loan repayment.
In the summer of 1994, during the privatization, Andrei Klimentyev bought a 30 percent stake in the Oka plant, and in January 1995 he became a member of the board of directors of the plant. The administration of the region did not exercise control over the spending of the loan allocated to the plant, and part of the funds was spent inappropriately.
In early 1995, on the initiative Boris Nemtsov The prosecutor's office initiated a criminal case against Andrey Klimentyev, he appeared as a witness for the prosecution in court. Klimentiev and plant director Kislyakov were found guilty of embezzling $2,462,000, but the verdict was then overturned by the Supreme Court, which fully acquitted the businessmen.
In 1998, Klimentyev was again tried in this case, found guilty, and he was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Klimentiev, in turn, accused Boris Nemtsov in accepting and extorting bribes, also stating that the criminal case is revenge on the part of Nemtsov. So, according to Klimentyev, he asked him to pay the American Bank of New York a debt of $2 million for Nizhegorodets Bank, hoping to receive $400,000 from the transfer. In addition, as Klimentiev stated, he wanted to receive 800 thousand dollars for helping the plant in obtaining a loan. Nemtsov himself called Klimentyev's accusations slander. As Alexander Prudnik, a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote, the arrest of Klimentyev “can be considered the first experience in Russia in introducing penitentiary technologies into the political, electoral reality.”
Boris Nemtsov's connections with B. Brevnov
Since 1992, economic adviser Nemtsov a young businessman Boris Brevnov began to work, whom he himself later described as a "talented person".
In March 1992, Yegor Gaidar signed a government decree allowing Boris Nemtsov create a conversion fund. The money transferred to this fund went to the account of the Nizhny Novgorod Banking House, a commercial bank established with public funds. In the same year, Brevnov with permission Nemtsov became chairman of the board of the bank. In 1997, Brevnov was elected chairman of its board of directors. The bank established a subsidiary LLC "Region", which was owned by Brevnov. According to the head of the working commission of the State Duma, Vladimir Semago, significant amounts were transferred to Region LLC.
The bank appeared in the case of the embezzlement of a state loan to the Navashinsky shipbuilding plant Oka. As Moses Gelman, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Promyshlennye Vedomosti, wrote, “manipulations Nemtsov and Brevnov with budget money, among other things, led to the collapse of the Navashinsky shipyard itself, and, consequently, to unemployment in this city.
In 1992, in his own words, he introduced Brevnov to US citizen Gretchen Wilson, an employee of the International Finance Corporation. In 1997, Brevnov and Wilson got married. As Novaya Gazeta wrote, Wilson, with the help of Nemtsov“privatized the largest Balakhna paper mill for only seven million dollars (the real price of a unique mill is ten times higher than this price).
Everything that was possible was sucked out of the plant, and subsequently it was destroyed, creating unbearable conditions for the workers.” The Balakhna plant was bought for $7 million by the American bank CS First Boston (whose Moscow branch was headed by Boris Yordan). Andrey Klimentiev, former Counsel Nemtsov, said that the annual turnover of the plant was $ 250 million, and CS First Boston bank later organized trips Nemtsov in Swiss Davos. In his book Confessions of a Rebel, he called Wilson "a very intelligent woman" who "did a lot for the Nizhny Novgorod region."
Later when Nemtsov went to work in the Russian government, Brevnov, under his patronage, becomes chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia.
The activities of Boris Nemtsov as governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region
In December 1995, in the elections in the Nizhny Novgorod region, he was elected governor. The newspaper "Kommersant" wrote that in 1995 he "gained great fame as a reformer", whose experience in restructuring the economy of a particular region, the government recommended to implement everywhere.
At the beginning of 1996 by initiative of Boris Nemtsov in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a collection of signatures was held for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. On January 29, 1996, these signatures were handed over to President Yeltsin.
In his work “History of the latest domestic journalism”, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Press Department of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov Rafail Hovsepyan wrote: All the media reported on a truly massive action held by the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region B. Nemtsov. He presented the President with a million signatures from Nizhny Novgorod citizens demanding an end to the war in Chechnya. The action of Nizhny Novgorod residents was supported by many regions of the country.
In the spring of 1996, he was nominated by an initiative group as a candidate for the post of President of Russia, but refused to participate in the elections.
In 1996, in a publication edited by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Tatyana Zaslavskaya, the opinion of the chief specialist of the State Committee for Federation and Nationalities of the Russian Federation, Olga Senatova, was published. O. Senatova described the Boris Nemtsov regime as authoritarian. According to O. Senatova, in the absence of control from the federal center (from 1991 to 1994 he combined the posts of the head of the administration and the representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the region), Nemtsov established total control over the media, which hindered the activities of the opposition and contributed to the formation of an absolutely manageable legislative body - more than 60%, according to Senatova, were executive functionaries at all levels.
According to O. Senatova, "the displacement of structures and individuals from local politics has led to an inadequately large number of Nizhny Novgorod residents in the federal lists of parties and movements" - personalities ousted from local politics "rushed" to the federal level. Nemtsov patronized by the federal center, which contributed a lot to the inflow of investments into the region. According to O. Senatova, he provided patronage to a number of commercial firms (Aroko firm, Boris Brevnov's Nizhny Novgorod Banking House bank, etc.), while at the same time complicating the activities of foreign or independent small companies. According to O. Senatova, the combination of a fairly effective domestic policy with the work of the “propaganda machine” ensured Nemtsov high popularity among the population.
Sergey Borisov, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Research Foundation, in his study "The current political regime in the Nizhny Novgorod region: Formation in the 1990s" calls one of the "most natural consequences of the authoritarianization of the political regime" folding around Nemtsov by the end of 1993, "an informal alliance of individual representatives of the most influential, elitist corporations": the executive and legislative branches of government, local "siloviki", entrepreneurs and media leaders.
Borisov noted the following features characteristic of the regime of regional authoritarianism (as Borisov wrote, "in the very set of these features of the regime of regional authoritarianism, the Nizhny Novgorod region was no exception"):
* "dominance of the executive power over the representative power at all levels";
* "the predominance of the principle of corporatism in the code of conduct of subjects of political relations";
* "admission by the authorities of the strengthening of other centers of economic and political influence within the limits strictly controlled by it";
* "direct or indirect control over regional media, primarily electronic";
* "a stable contract with the central government, which includes formal and informal guarantees of mutual loyalty";
* "widespread use of populist tools in relations with the population."
According to Borisov, a liberal-populist version of such a regime has been implemented in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Alternative poles of political influence outside the ruling hierarchy were not suppressed by the administration Governor Nemtsov, however, their possible strengthening was under close attention and was limited, as Sergei Borisov wrote, using a variety of means. The activity of representative bodies of power was also pushed aside by the governor's administration from the epicenter of the political process.
At the same time, as Borisov wrote, the political opposition was not perceived by the governor as something necessarily hostile, and was surrounded by "an atmosphere of a certain tolerance." The political rivals of the governor were forced out to the periphery of public life not by means of apparatus pressure, but by the methods of public policy.
Candidate of Historical Sciences Nikolai Raspopov wrote that ""the regime Boris Nemtsov“was characterized by many experts as close to authoritarian.”
Alexander Prudnik, an employee of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote that the events after January 1994 in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod region "represent a technology for intuitively working out new elements of managed democracy." According to Prudnik, "he blocked the path to the desired future for many talented Nizhny Novgorod residents - both the new generation of politicians and the new generation of entrepreneurs."
The collection of scientific papers of the Moscow Public Science Foundation stated that “the style of political leadership Nemtsov can be described as intuitive, improvisational and mildly authoritarian."
In a study by Sergei Borisov, it was said that during the period governorship of Boris Nemtsov in the Nizhny Novgorod region there was a rapid development of the mass media. The number of city and regional newspapers has doubled, changes have taken place on television - by the beginning of 1997, seven television companies were operating in Nizhny Novgorod on six local channels. Borisov wrote that during the governorship Nemtsov there were no recurrences (or surrogates) of censorship in the region, spoke about the "unprecedented openness of the regional administration", for example, journalists had free access to weekly operational meetings of the governor's administration, there was no accreditation procedure at all.
BBC Russian Service correspondent Danila Galperovich called the Nizhny Novgorod region a "journalistic paradise":
The city of unafraid journalists - this is how Nizhny Novgorod was called in the mid-1990s for the freedom that was bestowed on the local pen and camera sharks by the Nizhny Novgorod governor Boris Nemtsov. - "Journalistic Paradise in Nizhny Novgorod".// BBC Russian Service
Galperovich in his article quoted Tatyana Postnikova, editor-in-chief of the Nizhny Novgorod Rabochy daily newspaper, who compared the situation in the 1990s with the state of affairs in 2003:
“He was a good newsmaker himself and was very open to the press. Therefore, it was interesting to work with him. Now we are working with officials who do not want to be either transparent or open. But they really want to be praised, and for this they come up with all sorts of press conferences, press releases, but nothing more.
The editor-in-chief of AiF-NN, Natalia Lisitsyna, stated:
... The other day I was talking with a colleague from Ukraine and envied with white envy - there are really free media there now. The situation is about the same as it was in Russia in the 90s. Especially - in Nizhny Novgorod, which was called "the land of fearless journalists."
By the way, he didn’t call him that at all, as many people think. It was at one of the press conferences that Nizhny Novgorod journalists were envied by colleagues from the Ulyanovsk region, which was then ruled by the “red” governor. They were amazed that the press service in Nizhny Novgorod does not collect questions for press conferences in advance, while the media can easily and without prejudice criticize even the mayor, even the deputies, even the head of the region. - Natalia Lisitsyna "Gag for the media." // APN - Nizhny Novgorod
Shortly after appointment Boris Nemtsov head of the Nizhny Novgorod region administration, radical economic reforms began in Russia, which, according to a number of researchers, led to a sharp decline in the Russian economy and a significant drop in the living standards of the population. The economic downturn at that time was also observed in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Nemtsov considered the federal government under Yegor Gaidar to be incompetent, and he assessed the reforms carried out by him as "sluggish schizophrenia." To the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin Nemtsov He was also critical at first, but then changed his mind.
Profile magazine wrote that “thanks to his exceptional ability to knock out investments from the federal center” he achieved considerable success in the region: one and a half hundred churches were restored, thousands of kilometers of roads and more than a hundred bridges were built, one hundred thousand houses were gasified, an international airport was opened where Margaret landed Thatcher, John Major and French Prime Minister Alain Joupet.
Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Political Science of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations State Duma Deputy Stepan Sulakshin wrote:
"Success" indicators Nemtsov in the Nizhny Novgorod region are as follows: the number of criminals here is greater than the national average; the number of patients is higher than the national average; the standard of living is 1.5 times lower than in Russia as a whole; mortality of the population at the level of the first war years; (...) the industry of the region has practically been stopped, the Chkalov shipyard is standing, the Sormovsky plant has been stopped
Doctor of Historical Sciences R. A. Medvedev wrote:
In 1995, he won the gubernatorial election by a wide margin from other contenders. It was then written about as a rising star of Russian politics, and about Nizhny Novgorod as the "capital of Russian reforms." One of the international economic journals included Boris Nemtsov in the list of "200 world leaders of the next century". However, the real successes of the region were not comparable with the scope of the propaganda campaign. There were many beginnings here, but they were not brought to an end, and the region did not become a showcase for liberal reforms. The famous Nizhny Novgorod fair demonstrated the wretchedness and decline of agriculture. The decline in production in many industries was even greater in the region than in the federation as a whole. The standard of living in the region has fallen significantly. The fact that the economy of the Nizhny Novgorod region did not collapse even more was not connected by local observers with Nemtsov's activities, but with the work of Vice-Governor Ivan Sklyarov, who was responsible for the economy.
From 1991 to 1996, the total number of reported crimes in the Nizhny Novgorod region decreased and fell below the national average, while the number of murders in the region increased by about 60%.
Boris Nemtsov's work in the Russian Government
On March 17, 1997, the appointment took place Boris Nemtsov First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. By order of the Government of Russia dated March 25, 1997, the following duties were assigned to Nemtsov:
* organization of reforms in the social sphere and housing and communal services, ensuring coordination of the activities of federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation in these areas of activity;
* conducting issues of housing and construction policy, antimonopoly policy, demonopolization and development of competition, the activities of natural monopolies, meeting the needs of the economy and the population in fuel and energy, in rail transportation;
* direct coordination and control of the activities of a number of executive authorities of the Russian Federation, including the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, the State Antimonopoly Committee, the State Committee for Housing and Construction Policy, and the Federal Energy Commission.
From April 24 to November 20, 1997, he also served as Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia, from May 22, 1997 to October 1, 1998 - a member of the Russian Security Council. Roy Medvedev wrote that by appointing Boris Nemtsov, Yeltsin "to the displeasure of Chernomyrdin and Chubais, endowed the new favorite with a huge amount of authority and the ability to apply directly to the president," and also "promised to support Nemtsov for at least two years, or even longer."
He spoke about his plans, which he described as absolutely priority: First. Together with everyone, we must ensure economic growth in these two years. Second. We have to do some unpopular, painful things about communal reform and cutting off countless social benefits. Third. We must ensure state control over natural monopolies. And as a result, they must reduce the level of corruption in the apparatus and the alienation of the people from power.
As Roy Medvedev wrote: A lot of efforts were made in the stated directions, and some particular tasks were solved. But the progress was so insignificant that few could notice it. So, for example, even under the competitive principle of supplying the army, the position of the military continued to deteriorate. Rejection of the system of "authorized" banks did not noticeably improve their work. The communal reform had to be postponed due to the poverty of the population and the state. The implementation of the pension reform required stability and high confidence in the state. It was also not possible to change the system of social benefits for the better. The fight against the privileges of officials stumbled already at the first high-profile event: the replacement of service Mercedes and Volvos with domestic Volga. (…) Senior officials began to fill out declarations of property and income. However, no one was going to check these declarations, although it was obvious that the amounts of income and property in them were many times underestimated. Unsuccessful and struggle Nemtsov with the oligarchs. There were many words about "predatory capitalism", as well as attempts to rein in natural monopolies, but little was actually done. Thousands of influential officials stood up to protect the oligarchs and natural monopolies, and Nemtsov never had his own team, and the support of the president became more and more sluggish.
In May 1997, on the recommendation Boris Nemtsov and with the assistance of Anatoly Chubais, 31-year-old Boris Brevnov from the environment Nemtsov in Nizhny Novgorod, he is a member of the management of RAO UES of Russia. Later, the Accounts Chamber of Russia discovered numerous financial violations in Brevnov's activities, and in 1998 he lost his post. As Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted, “as a result of the Brevnov scandal, it is actually losing control over RAO UES. Nemtsov is once again demoted: from the curator of the fuel and energy complex, he descends to the level of “providing the needs of the economy in fuel and energy.” Later myself Nemtsov he said that he sometimes made mistakes in the people he nominated for leadership, but emphasized that "he had nothing to repent of."
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Nakoryakov, characterizing the activities Boris Nemtsov and his nominee, wrote: “The collapse of the Russian energy industry began with the arrival of absolute non-professionals in the leadership. The starting point can be called the entry into the energy sector in the mid-90s Boris Nemtsov, B. Brevnova and their teams. Until a certain time, the technological backlog created in previous years was enough to withstand the efforts that the team of absolute amateurs in the energy and economics made to destroy the energy complex and lose control over it.”
In April 1997, according to the Public Opinion Foundation, 29% of Russians were ready to see Boris Nemtsov as a candidate for the post of President of Russia. At that moment, Boris Nemtsov was the leader in the presidential rating, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov was in second place in popularity, then General Alexander Lebed, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky. In the second round, according to sociologists, Nemtsov would have defeated any of the mentioned politicians.
Roy Medvedev wrote: But already at the beginning of 1998, everything began to change by itself. Popularity metrics Nemtsov fell 2, then 3 times. Less and less was written about him. Nemtsov was called "dummy", "Khlestakov", "unsuccessful trainer of natural monopolies." He was reproached for lack of consistency and perseverance, for dubious connections with dubious businessmen, for lack of education and promiscuity in means. Especially often he was portrayed as a playboy. Yes, and he himself, maintaining this reputation, began to appear at beauty contests and made ambiguous statements about pop stars.
By the end of 1999, the presidential Nemtsov rating dropped to 1 percent.
On November 4, 1997, the First Deputy Prime Ministers and Anatoly Chubais, at a meeting with President Boris Yeltsin, sought the resignation of Boris Berezovsky from the post of Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. According to Boris Yeltsin, Nemtsov and Chubais said at this meeting that "a person who confuses business with politics cannot hold this position, they gave examples, they said that Berezovsky undermines the authority of the authorities in the country." The next day, a presidential decree was signed on the resignation of Berezovsky. According to Yeltsin's memoirs, the vice-premiers "gave a pretext" to get rid of Berezovsky, whom Yeltsin described as "an annoying 'shadow'".
On December 26, 1997, the State Duma adopted a resolution in which it described Boris Nemtsov as an irresponsible and unskilled politician, offering Yeltsin to relieve him of his post.
In early 1998, he was appointed to the post of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the order of the Government of Russia dated May 13, 1998, on Nemtsov the following responsibilities were assigned:
* organization of land reform and reform in the housing and communal services, reforms in the field of transportation, ensuring the interaction of executive authorities in this area;
* conducting issues of formation and implementation of state policy in the field of scientific and technological progress, energy, construction, transport and communications;
* conducting issues of antimonopoly policy, including in the field of communications and transport, demonopolization and development of competition, support and development of small and medium-sized businesses, regulation of natural monopolies;
* management of issues related to the use of natural resources, monitoring and environmental protection, development of forestry and fisheries;
* performance of the duties of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in case of his temporary absence;
* coordination of the activities of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (in terms of issues of foreign economic and commercial activities);
* direct coordination and control of the activities of a number of executive authorities of the Russian Federation, including the Ministry for Land Policy, Construction and Housing and Public Utilities, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, the Ministry of Transport, the State Antimonopoly Committee.
Decree of the Government of Russia dated May 15, 1998 on Boris Nemtsov was entrusted with the leadership of the commission of the Government of the Russian Federation on operational issues and the Interdepartmental commission on socio-economic problems of coal-mining regions.
May-November 1997 and since May 1998 Nemtsov He was also Chairman of the Board of State Representatives in RAO Gazprom.
Nemtsov is one of the initiators of the adoption of the Presidential Program for Management Training.
A few days after the default on August 17, 1998, the government of Sergei Kiriyenko was dismissed, Nemtsov became acting deputy chairman of the Russian government. According to the Profile magazine, Boris Yeltsin called Nemtsov and said that he had nothing to do with the crisis, and therefore would work until the year 2000, but Nemtsov refused.
On August 24, 1998, he submitted his resignation, which was granted by the decree of the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin on August 28, 1998.
As the Kommersant-Vlast magazine wrote, Boris Nemtsov "did not distinguish himself much" as deputy chairman of the government. From memorable initiatives Nemtsov the magazine noted his call to transfer Russian officials to domestic cars.
The activities of Boris Nemtsov in 1998-2007 and work in the concern "Neftyanoy"
On September 22, 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council for Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation (on a voluntary basis).
In December 1998, the socio-political movement "Young Russia" was established. was elected chairman of the federal political council of this movement. In the spring of 1999, Young Russia became part of the Just Cause coalition.
On March 3, 1999, he announced that a default was inevitable in Russia.
At the beginning of March 1999, information appeared in the press that a number of other representatives of right-wing forces were included in the list of candidates for members of the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia. On March 16, Chairman of the State Duma Seleznev said that the Duma would not allow election to the board of directors of this company Boris Nemtsov, Yegor Gaidar, Sergei Kiriyenko and Boris Fedorov.
According to Seleznev, "The Right Cause electoral coalition would like to have a good sponsor in the form of RAO UES of Russia in the upcoming parliamentary elections, but these people have already made a mistake, and it is not clear what they have to do with energy." On March 22, he announced his refusal to work for RAO UES of Russia.
On April 2, 1999, the State Duma adopted a resolution stating:
The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation received with concern media reports about the so-called peacekeeping initiative of a group of Russian politicians notorious in the past, E. Gaidar, Boris Nemtsov, B. Fedorov and A. Chubais in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The mentioned persons in practically all key issues of the economy, domestic and foreign policy followed the interests of the United States of America and a number of other member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which unleashed a criminal war in the Balkans. Their activities caused serious, and in some respects, irreparable damage to Russia.
In August 1999 Nemtsov positively commented on the approval of Vladimir Putin as chairman of the Russian government: “For the “right” forces, Putin is a completely acceptable figure. He is a hard-working, experienced and intelligent person, about the same level as Stepashin.
In September 1999, State Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznev called on the SPS leaders to make public the sources of funding for their election bloc. Seleznev recalled the statement of one of the leaders of the Union of Right Forces Boris Nemtsov that they are "not poor people." The speaker of the State Duma noted that Nemtsov"does not work anywhere, that is, according to the old laws, a parasite." As Seleznev stated, in this case it is not clear where the SPS funds come from "for posters, advertising, and it is not clear what these guys live on."
At the end of 1999, together with Sergei Kiriyenko and Irina Khakamada, he headed the list of the Union of Right Forces pre-election bloc. In December, he was elected to the State Duma in the 117th Avtozavodsky constituency of Nizhny Novgorod, served as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, member of the State Duma Committee on Legislation and leader of the SPS faction. He was one of the co-chairs of the Union of Right Forces party.
November 27, 1999 Nemtsov called Vladimir Putin the most worthy person of all the candidates who intend to participate in the presidential elections in Russia in 2000. He said that Putin should be the next president. According to Boris Nemtsov, Putin is a responsible, honest, not afraid to make difficult decisions for himself, a person who will form a capable, responsible and competent government.
Subsequently Nemtsov recognized Putin's support as erroneous:
If in terms of the level of corruption, the country slipped to 154th place under Putin, if the whole point of his being in power is how to fill his pockets and line the pockets of his friends. If all civil rights and freedoms in Russia have been destroyed, then, in fact, why not recognize your wrong position, which was 11-12 years ago. Only die-hard idiots do not change their position all their lives. Let's remember how radio listeners, for example, treated Yeltsin in 1991? The support level was 85%, and then rolled down to 1% in 95-96.
Putin's support was also explained by the official position of the Union of Right Forces:
In 1999, we had a really difficult choice - a serious discussion among the leaders of the SPS party. Three of the co-chairmen of the party, namely Gaidar, Chubais and Kiriyenko, supported Putin, Khakamada and I did not. But since we worked in the same organization, it was decided that the Union of Right Forces supported Putin, and we publicly had to adhere to this official position. At the same time, in 2000, as well as later, I never voted for Putin.
In the presidential elections in Russia, held in March 2000, Nemtsov voted for Grigory Yavlinsky.
On April 28, 2001, at the fourth congress of Young Russia, the self-dissolution of this movement was announced on the eve of the creation of the Union of Right Forces party.
May 27, 2001 was elected chairman of the Federal Political Council of the Union of Right Forces.
In 2003, he topped the list of the Union of Right Forces in the elections to the State Duma, which did not overcome the 5% threshold. After the defeat in the elections, he resigned from the post of chairman of the political council of the Union of Right Forces.
In 2004-2005, he was chairman of the board of directors of the Neftyanoy concern, whose president was Igor Linshits. According to the prosecutor's office, a criminal group operated in the bank, which was part of the concern, which, by carrying out illegal banking operations, received "criminal income in the amount of 57 billion rubles." After the start of the audits of the company, he left the concern, saying that he wanted to “eliminate any political risks in the business” of his friend Linshits.
In 2004 he was elected to the board of the "Committee 2008: Free Choice"
Boris Nemtsov and the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine
In 2004 Nemtsov's party The Union of Right Forces officially supported Viktor Yushchenko during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine. During the Orange Revolution, he became one of the few Russian politicians who came out in support of Yushchenko. visited Kyiv several times, speaking at "orange" rallies.
From February 2005 to October 2006 he was a non-staff adviser to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. In the words of Boris Nemtsov, "his advice cannot be called life-changing, but he did what he could":
- I would single out three significant proposals made by me to Yushchenko. The first concerns the termination of the topic of the nationalization of property, the revision of the results of Kuchma's privatization. As many people remember, ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko actively insisted on this. I made a proposal to freeze this issue. Yushchenko accepted it.
The second proposal concerns the petrol, meat and sugar crises, arranged by the same Tymoshenko. When she decided to put the economy into a tailspin, I came to Yushchenko and offered to dismiss Yulia Vladimirovna. I am not the author of the resignation, the author, of course, is Yushchenko. I just advised him to do it.
My third piece of advice was to create a broad orange-white-blue coalition. It was very difficult for Yushchenko to communicate with Yanukovych, but I explained to him that it would be democratic, because the people voted for Yanukovych.
Participation of Boris Nemtsov in the Duma elections of 2007
Released in 2007 Nemtsov's book"Confessions of a Rebel".
In September 2007, the SPS party congress approved Boris Nemtsov, along with Nikita Belykh and Marietta Chudakova, at the head of the SPS electoral list for the 2007 State Duma elections. During the election campaign, the Union of Right Forces issued a harsh criticism of the authorities headed by Vladimir Putin.
In November 2007, during the election campaign to the State Duma, a number of media outlets published a statement by the first issue of the SPS regional group for Ingushetia, Vakha Evloev, who negatively characterized the activities Nemtsov:
IN biographies of Nemtsov too many dark spots. This is an unreturned state loan of $18 million, which was issued to the Nizhny Novgorod region under the personal guarantees of the then governor Nemtsov. This is the failure of the housing and communal services reform, for which Nemtsov was responsible during his time in government. This is the failure of the antimonopoly policy, for which Nemtsov was also responsible. This list can be continued indefinitely. And most importantly, people have not forgotten all these achievements of Nemtsov with a minus sign ... Now Nemtsov at the head of the Union of Right Forces, he suddenly began to earnestly take care of pensioners and the poor. People perceive this combination as a mockery on the part of our party as a whole. This will ruin the party, I do not want to participate in this dishonest game.
Political scientist Alexander Kynev called this statement "a PR campaign to discredit one of the political parties", suggesting that it was made under duress.
In December 2007, the Union of Right Forces Congress put forward Boris Nemtsov candidate for the post of President of Russia to participate in the elections in March 2008. As of December 2007, Nemtsov's presidential approval rating was less than 1 percent of the vote. On December 26, even before the start of the election campaign, he withdrew his candidacy in favor of Mikhail Kasyanov.
Following the results of the elections to the Duma in December 2007, candidates for the post of President of Russia, Vladimir Bukovsky and Mikhail Kasyanov, issued a joint statement. It specifically says:
The “elections” to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the fifth convocation, held on December 2, 2007, became the most unfree, most dishonest and dirtiest in the history of post-Soviet Russia.
A number of opposition representatives were not admitted to the elections at all. Those opposition parties that nevertheless managed to take part in the election campaign were subjected to unprecedented administrative pressure. Confiscation of campaign materials, arrests and beatings of activists, illegal detentions of candidates for deputies and even the murder of one of them, an organized campaign to discredit the opposition, false Goebbels propaganda in state media, lack of access of opposition parties to federal television channels, restrictions on the work of international observers - all this became hallmarks of the 2007 election campaign. - we quote an excerpt from the joint statement of Vladimir Bukovsky, Mikhail Kasyanov and Boris Nemtsov
In their statement, Bukovsky and Kasyanov pledged, if one of them wins the presidential election, to dissolve the State Duma of the fifth convocation and to call new elections as soon as possible, which “will be held in accordance with the standards of multi-party democracy, with freedom of speech, transparency of all procedures and equal opportunities for all participants”. None of these candidates were subsequently admitted to the presidential elections on March 2, 2008.
Self-dissolution of the Union of Right Forces, creation of the Solidarity movement
On February 12, 2008, the presentation of the “independent expert report” took place in the office of the SPS party Boris Nemtsov co-authored with Vladimir Milov “Putin. Results". On the same day, he announced the suspension of his membership in the Union of Right Forces, refusing to comment on this decision.
On April 5, 2008, he took part in the conference "A New Agenda for the Democratic Movement" in St. Petersburg.
At the conference, it was decided to start creating a united democratic movement "Solidarity". joined the coordinating group for the preparation of the first congress of Solidarity, in the course of this work he took part in the founding conferences of the new movement in Moscow, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa and other cities.
On November 15, 2008, at an extraordinary congress, the SPS party announced its self-dissolution. On the basis of the liquidated parties of the Union of Right Forces, Civil Force and the DPR, a new party "Just Cause" was created. was one of the persistent opponents of the dissolution of the Union of Right Forces, called Right Cause a "Kremlin project" and actively tried to convince his party comrades to abandon the voluntary liquidation of the Union of Right Forces, but the majority decided otherwise. A minority of the former members of the Union of Right Forces, including them, refused to participate in the Right Cause.
On December 13, 2008, at the first congress of the United Democratic Movement "Solidarity" he was elected a member of the federal political council of "Solidarity" and became a member of the bureau of the federal political council of the movement.
Representatives of the Yabloko party, sharply criticizing Solidarity, stated that they were primarily responsible for the “black PR” against our party during the 2003 State Duma election campaign. We mean the so-called “YABLOKO Movement without Yavlinsky”, which many of us remember, appeared about a month before the start of the election campaign and disappeared without a trace after it ended.
Nemtsov's participation in the election of the mayor of Sochi
In March 2009, he announced his intention to participate as a candidate in the election of the mayor of the city of Sochi. It's a decision mr Nemtsov accepted after receiving an appeal from a group of residents of Sochi with a request to stand as a candidate in the elections. On March 28, 2009, the municipal election commission officially registered Nemtsov as a candidate for mayor of the city of Sochi.
Nemtsov Boris Efimovich is a well-known Russian politician, statesman and public figure, businessman. During his career, Nemtsov achieved tremendous success in Russian domestic politics, and in the foreign policy arena, many foreign leaders marveled at his resilience and desire for change. In 2015, the Ukrainian president called Boris Nemtsov "a connecting bridge between Ukraine and Russia."
Childhood and youth
Boris Nemtsov was born on October 9, 1959 in the city of Sochi. Father Efim Davidovich was an official. Mother Dina Yakovlevna Eidman is a doctor. Boris spent the first eight years of his life in his native city, but soon went with his mother and sister Yulia to Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod). Despite the separation of his parents, the boy continued to communicate a lot with his father, who helped the family financially and often took his son to the capital of the Soviet state.
baby photos
The future politician graduated from school with a gold medal, soon enrolling in Gorky State University, where he began a successful study at the Faculty of Radiophysics. After graduation, Nemtsov decided to work as a research assistant. At that time, he tried his hand at literature, wrote poetry and short stories under the pseudonym Ben Aidman, and constantly moonlighted as an English tutor.
In 1985, initially Boris Nemtsov completely immersed himself in science, working in various research institutes. The man became a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, in his "piggy bank" by 1986 there were more than 60 scientific papers on physics, acoustics and thermodynamics.
In youth | Our newspaper It was assumed that interest in scientific activity would become the basis for his further professional growth in this particular area, but everything changed in 1988, when Nemtsov joined the environmental movement. The members of the association opposed the construction of the Gorky nuclear power plant (as a result, the construction of the facility was stopped). From that moment on, politics became the main component of Boris Nemtsov's life.
Political career
The struggle against the construction of a large strategic facility was the beginning of the political career of Boris Nemtsov. In 1989, the novice politician was nominated as a candidate for people's deputies of the USSR from the regional society "For Nuclear Safety", but representatives of the election commission did not register him.
In 1990, Boris Nemtsov entered the election campaign, taking an active part in the creation of a new political association, Candidates for Democracy. As a result, he managed to win the elections and became a People's Deputy of the RSFSR. In addition, he was a member of the deputy groups "Russian Union", "Non-Party Deputies" and "Change".
In the State Duma | Political officer In 1991, it can be called a definite breakthrough in the career of Boris Efimovich. He becomes a confidant of a candidate for the presidency of Russia. The powers of the new representative of the head of the Russian Federation extended to the territory of the entire Nizhny Novgorod region. In August of the same year, a well-known official, while on vacation with his family in the capital of Russia, participates in the defense of the White House.
On November 30, 1991, Nemtsov was appointed head of the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region, becoming the country's youngest head of such a high level. During his tenure as governor, he managed to implement quite successful programs on the Russian territory entrusted to him. In particular, Nemtsov's list of successful initiatives includes the Meter by Meter program (initiatives to reform housing conditions for military personnel), as well as People's Telephone, Gasification of Villages and ZERNO.
With Boris Yeltsin | Mirtesen As governor, Boris Efimovich repeatedly criticized the economic program of the chairman of the government of the RSFSR, but in the future the politician will still appreciate the efforts of an economist who tried to stop the process of destruction of economic sectors of the not so long ago omnipotent Soviet Union.
Nemtsov argued that the reforms were not carried out in full, and considered the government's inaction a sign of weakness. Thus, he decides in December 1991 to invite Grigory Yavlinsky to the Nizhny Novgorod region to organize the economic reform of the region. In 1992, Yavlinsky, head of the EPIcenter Research Institute for Economic and Political Research, developed, together with Nemtsov, an ambitious program of regional reforms.
Photo politics | God-nemtsova.ru In December 1993, residents of the Nizhny Novgorod region elected their governor to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and in February 1994 he became a member of the Federation Council committee on currency and credit regulation.
In 1995, Nemtsov again became the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. At that time, Boris Efimovich had a reputation as a progressive reformer, and his significant experience in restructuring the economic sectors of a particular region in the government was recommended to be implemented in all municipalities of the state. Reformatory thinking, assertiveness, the effectiveness of program implementation and the successful implementation of ideas in practice became a kind of substantial set of factors that made many citizens believe that it was Boris Efimovich who was able to become that substantial force for Russia, which would lead the country to prosperity.
It should be noted that during his governorship, Nemtsov became a well-known media character due to a squabble with the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party on ORT television. During the telecast, Zhirinovsky doused his opponent with mango juice.
In 1996, Boris Nemtsov, taking the initiative, organized a collection of signatures in the Nizhny Novgorod region for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. These signatures were submitted to President Yeltsin for consideration.
In March 1997, Nemtsov already holds the position of First Deputy Prime Minister in the government. In his new position, Boris Efimovich began to oversee the social block, and also exercised control in the field of natural monopolies. He repeatedly suggested introducing new programs that could completely change the state of affairs in the country, laying a powerful foundation for the future development of the entire socio-economic sector.
MP | THEХЗ.ru In the spring of 1998, a large-scale reorganization of the government took place, Sergei Kiriyenko became the head of the Cabinet of Ministers. Despite significant reshuffles, Nemtsov continues to oversee the financial and economic block, he is still entrusted with the most responsible tasks in the financial sector. After the default in August 1998, the Cabinet of Ministers of Russia resigns, Boris Nemtsov leaves the post of Deputy Prime Minister.
Opposition
As deputy chairman of the government, Boris Efimovich was remembered by citizens for his call to transfer all Russian officials to vehicles of domestic production. 13 years later, a similar proposal was made by the President of the Russian Federation, but Nemtsov, already the main opposition to the current government, called this idea "stale and unpromising."
Saying goodbye to the executive branch, Nemtsov created the Young Russia movement. In 1999, he was elected to the State Duma as part of the Union of Right Forces electoral bloc. From this faction on March 1, 2000, Boris Efimovich was elected deputy chairman of the Russian parliament.
Oppositionist | TRANSLATION In December 2003, the "Union of Right Forces" did not receive the necessary support of voters in the elections, not getting into the State Duma of the IV convocation. In 2004, Nemtsov resigned along with other co-chairs of the political council, explaining this situation with a failure in the elections.
Even before resigning from the post of co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces, Nemtsov was one of the main founders of the Committee 2008: Free Choice organization, and a chess player became the leader. The purpose of the organization was to consolidate all liberal forces on a single platform for further effective activities in the political field. Boris assumed that such an initiative would help change the vector of development of the state precisely due to radical changes in the structure of state administration at the highest level.
With Garry Kasparov | Vedomosti In the fall of 2004, Boris Nemtsov supported the supporters of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. He took an active part in the protests on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. The Russian politician welcomed the victory of the Ukrainian "right" and expressed his readiness to support them in their efforts to extend their vision of change to Russia. On the main square of the country, Ukrainian citizens welcomed Nemtsov's speeches.
In his speech, he repeatedly stated his readiness to hold similar actions in the Russian Federation. His vision of the development of the Russian state was not perceived at home. This often became a reason for criticism of Nemtsov in the Russian Federation, but the politician continued to work, trying to realize his own ambitious plans. From 2005 to 2006, Nemtsov served as a freelance adviser to the President of Ukraine. Viktor Yushchenko, who was the head of the Ukrainian state, then said that "Nemtsov's advice was not life-changing, but he did everything he could."
Photo politics | air force In March 2007, Boris Yefimovich welcomed the results of the next parliamentary elections with the participation of the Union of Right Forces, as the party was able to overcome the 7% threshold in six of the nine regions. In September 2007, Nemtsov entered the top three list of political forces, but did not become a State Duma deputy, since the party won only 0.96% of the vote.
In 2007, Boris Nemtsov ran for the post of head of the Russian Federation, but according to the results of the vote, the politician could not get even 1% of the votes of citizens. After that, harsh criticism poured into the political figure: some politicians spoke negatively about the results of his work in the political sphere. In the same year, Boris Nemtsov's book Confessions of a Rebel was published.
In February 2008, Nemtsov announced that he was suspending his membership in the Union of Right Forces. The politician refused to explain this decision, but said that he intends to continue to cooperate with the party in various areas. Yet despite his efforts, the political association ceases to exist.
At a rally of the Solidarity movement | InterFax In 2008, a well-known politician, together with his colleagues, decided to organize a new opposition movement, Solidarity. The decision to organize a political force was made at the St. Petersburg conference "A New Agenda for the Democratic Movement". He also took part in the creation of Solidarity conferences in Moscow, Krasnodar, Irkutsk, Ufa and Nizhny Novgorod. Kasparov and Nemtsov become the leaders of Solidarity.
In 2009, Nemtsov was announced as a candidate for mayor of the future capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics - the city of Sochi. Elections in April 2009, Nemtsov lost, taking second place.
In 2010, Nemtsov took part in the creation of the opposition coalition "For Russia without arbitrariness and corruption." Based on the new political platform, it was decided to organize an effective party to win the parliamentary elections. It was established in December 2010 as the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS). The opposition has high hopes for the new political force, but in 2011 PARNAS was denied registration.
Arrest on Triumphalnaya Square | Apinews.ru On December 31, 2010, Boris Nemtsov, together with Ilya Yashin (Nemtsov's ally in Solidarity), was detained by police on Triumfalnaya Square after speaking at a rally, the holding of which had previously been coordinated with the capital's mayor's office without much confrontation. Law enforcement officers accused Nemtsov of violating public order, he was serving 15 days of arrest.
The last years of Boris Nemtsov's life were remembered for constant criminal proceedings. In 2012, he was charged with beating up blogger Maxim Perevalov, but the case was closed, and the video allegedly showing Nemtsov beating Perevalov at Domodedovo turned out to be irrelevant, as the blogger confused politics at the airport with another person. It turned out that the well-known politician was not at all involved in the incident.
Peace March 2014 | PARNASSUS In 2014, Nemtsov declared that he was a supporter of the Kiev "Euromaidan", sharply criticizing Russia's policy towards Ukraine in the future.
On March 1, 2015, in Russia, he was going to take part in the protest march of the opposition "Spring".
Personal life
Boris Efimovich was married. With his wife, they lived separately for the last years of marriage. Raisa Akhmetovna worked as a librarian. From this marriage, Nemtsov has a daughter (born in 1984). In 2005, the girl decided to follow in the footsteps of her father, she ran for the elections to the Moscow City Duma. Despite the support of five political parties, Jeanne lost the election.
With wife Raisa | Evening Moscow Nemtsov also has children from journalist Ekaterina Odintsova: son - Anton, daughter - Dina. In 2004, Irina Koroleva, who served as his secretary, had a daughter, Sofia.
With Ekaterina Odintsova | KP Another lover of Nemtsov was Anastasia Ogneva, whom the politician met in 2012. He dated her for over three years.
Many accused Nemtsov of excessive attention to the representatives of the beautiful half of humanity, but he repeatedly stated that his women always simply loved, and men envied this state of affairs.
With Anna Duritskaya The last love of the politician was the Ukrainian model.
Nemtsov loved sports. In his free time, he liked to play tennis, which he had been doing since 1979, and was fond of windsurfing.
Murder
The night of February 27-28, 2015 was the last for the Russian oppositionist. At 23:40 (Moscow time) politician.
The murder of Boris Nemtsov took place on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge when he was walking with Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya. The criminals shot the politician, having fled the scene of the murder in a white car (this was recorded by local surveillance cameras). The President of the Russian Federation noted that the high-profile murder is "custom-made and provocative."
Photos from the scene of the murder | Evening Moscow The murder of Boris Nemtsov took place right on the eve of the opposition march scheduled for March 1, 2015. Thus, the opposition march "Spring" was one of the last projects of Nemtsov, since the public figure until the last moment remained the organizer of the procession. Due to the fact that the Spring march was moved to one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas of Maryino, some oppositionists refused to take part in it, but the well-known Russian politician was not going to stop, calling the demands of the future action “more important than the venue of the opposition march ".
The head of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin took special control over the investigation of the crime. Law enforcement officers began to carry out operational and investigative measures.
Photos from the scene of the murder | LB.ua The death of Nemtsov excited the world community. Foreign political and public figures, having learned about the murder of a Russian opposition politician, called on the Russian authorities to bring the investigation to its logical conclusion. Many in the world said that finding the organizers and perpetrators of the massacre is a matter of honor for the entire state system of the Russian Federation.
Putin immediately instructed the law enforcement agencies to create a joint group of the RF IC, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB to investigate the circumstances of the terrible crime. In turn, the government also involved the best specialists to find out all the details of what happened.
Photo politics | What's happening? Nemtsov's friends and associates were shocked by the tragedy. In particular, the well-known Russian TV presenter in her Instagram account reacted extremely painfully to the death of the politician, writing that Boris was "an honest, sparkling, bright person who lived swiftly and died like a real fighter."
Investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov
In 2016, representatives of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation completed an investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov. According to investigators, the customers offered 15 million rubles to the defendants for the massacre of the politician.
The politician's killer did not act alone. Shadid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov, Zaur Dadaev, Anzor Gubashev and Khamzat Bakhaev are the five defendants in this case.
Persons involved in the murder case | Newstes.ru Law enforcement officers found out that a group of killers carefully prepared to commit a crime, studying the lifestyle of a political figure, his place of residence, and conducted covert surveillance of him. Former officer of the Chechen battalion "North" Ruslan Mukhudinov, the investigating authorities called the customer of the murder. According to investigators, in September 2014, it was Ruslan Mukhudinov and other persons who offered the perpetrators funds in the amount of 15 million rubles for the murder of Boris Nemtsov. Mukhudinov has been on the international wanted list since November 2015.
Caucasian Knot On January 20, 2016, it was announced that the murder of Nemtsov had been solved. The involvement of all the accused is confirmed by the results of 70 complex forensic examinations.
Films about Nemtsov
After the murder of a famous statesman, many representatives of the film industry decided to tell about his life in their films.
In 2015, director Zosya Rodkevich made the film My Friend Boris Nemtsov. In this documentary film, the author presented her view on the life of a famous Russian statesman.
In 2017, there will also be another film about Nemtsov called "Man Too Free". Here we will talk about his political biography. The director of the film is Vera Krichevskaya.
Latest photo politics | MMR Nemtsov's words that freedom is expensive clearly demonstrate how much the politician adhered to his own values throughout his life. For many Russians, Nemtsov is associated precisely with the freedom that he took with him on February 28, 2015.
“Freedom is when you do not feel guilty about all the troubles that occur in the vastness of our vast country, and you are responsible only for yourself and your loved ones.”
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov. Born October 9, 1959 in Sochi - killed February 27, 2015 in Moscow. Russian politician and statesman, deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma of the sixth convocation, one of the founders and leaders of the Solidarity UDM, co-chairman of the RPR-PARNAS political party, member of the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition, physicist.
The first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region (1991-1997). Then Nemtsov went to work in the Government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy (1997) and First Deputy Prime Minister (1997-1998). In 1997-1998 he was a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. At the time of his work as governor and vice-premier, he was the youngest Russian politician in these positions (until the appointment in April 1998 of Prime Minister S. Kiriyenko).
In 1998, he created the Young Russia liberal movement, which then became one of the founders of the Right Cause coalition (1998-2000) and the Union of Right Forces party. Nemtsov was elected several times to the Russian parliament, in 1990 he was elected a people's deputy of the RSFSR, in 1993 he was elected to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in 1995-1997 he was a member of the Federation Council as a governor. In 1999-2003, he was a member of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, where he held the positions of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and head of the Union of Right Forces faction. After 2003, he worked in business and was a freelance adviser to the President of Ukraine.
After the split in the "Union of Right Forces" (when members of the same party decided to unite in "Just Cause") in 2008, he was one of the initiators of the creation of the opposition democratic movement "Solidarity". Since 2008 - member of the Bureau of the Federal Political Council of the Solidarity movement. In 2009, with the support of Solidarity, he was nominated for the post of mayor of Sochi and took second place in the elections after the candidate from the ruling party. In 2010, the movement joined the coalition "For Russia without arbitrariness and corruption."
Since 2012 - co-chairman of the political party "Republican Party of Russia - Party of People's Freedom" (RPR-PARNAS). Known for publishing a number of reports on corruption and criticizing V. Putin (“Putin. Results. 10 years”, “Putin. Corruption”), as well as one of the organizers and participants of the “March of Dissent” (2007), “Strategy-31”, protest rallies "For Fair Elections" (2011-2013) and marches against military operations on the territory of Ukraine (2014-2015).
In the regional elections on September 8, 2013, he was elected a deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma at the head of the list of the RPR-Parnas party.
He was a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, the author of more than 60 scientific papers and several inventions. The initiator of naming the heads of regions in Russia as governors (thus, he became the first governor in modern Russia). Initiator of the Presidential Program for Management Training. He was awarded several Russian state awards (including the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland), the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, and the Order of St. Prince Daniel of Moscow from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Shot dead on the night of February 27-28, 2015 by unknown people in Moscow. According to the priority version of the investigation, he died at the hands of Islamists. He was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
Boris Nemtsov. Cult of personality
Born on October 9, 1959 in Sochi in the family of the deputy head of the construction department Efim Davydovich Nemtsov (1928-1988) and pediatrician, Honored Doctor of Russia Dina Yakovlevna Nemtsova (nee Eidman; born March 3, 1928).
He was the youngest child in the family (sister Julia is 6 years older).
According to Nemtsov's memoirs, his paternal grandmother, Anna Borisovna Nemtsova (1899-1980), was Russian and, as a child, baptized him secretly from her Jewish mother, which caused her great displeasure. His cousin (on the maternal side) is Igor Eidman.
He studied in Gorky, graduated from school No. 11 of the Prioksky district with a gold medal. In 1976 he entered the radiophysics department of the Gorky State University named after M.V. N. I. Lobachevsky, who graduated with honors. Nemtsov's cousin, the son of Vilen Eidman - Igor Eidman - also studied at Gorky University. In 1997 he moved to Moscow.
Then he worked in research institutes. He dealt with the problems of plasma physics, acoustics and hydrodynamics. In 1985, while working at NIRFI together with his maternal uncle, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vilen Yakovlevich Eidman, he was a co-author of V. V. Kurin in the article “Harbinger and side waves when impulses are reflected from the interface between two media.”
In 1985 he defended his dissertation and received a PhD in physics and mathematics (topic: "Coherent effects of the interaction of moving sources with radiation"). Author of more than 60 scientific papers on quantum physics, thermodynamics, acoustics.
Among Nemtsov's inventions are an acoustic laser (superheated steam cools strongly, powerful infrasound occurs) and some antenna parameters for a spacecraft (when the ship enters the earth's atmosphere due to its heating, communication with the ship is lost - Nemtsov's invention removed communication interference). Academician V. L. Ginzburg spoke about him in 1997: “He studied at the Department of Radio Wave Propagation, organized by me at the radio department, was a graduate student of two of my graduate students: Eidman, his uncle, and Denisov. He is a really talented physicist, he has a lot of good papers.” He worked as a tutor in physics, mathematics and English.
In March 1990, he was elected a People's Deputy of the RSFSR for the Gorky National Territorial District, was a member of the Coalition of Reforms bloc and the Left Center - Cooperation faction.
According to the People's Deputy of the RSFSR, a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation Ilya Konstantinov, in June 1993 Nemtsov warned him about the upcoming dispersal of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet, saying that the deputies would be "crushed by tanks" and suggested that he (Konstantinov) go over to the side of the president.
During the presidential elections in Russia in 1991, Boris Nemtsov was a confidant of Boris Yeltsin in the Gorky region.
From August 27, 1991 to April 18, 1994, Boris Nemtsov was the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On October 18, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR delegated Nemtsov to the Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, but after 2 months he was recalled from there due to the ratification by the Russian parliament of the Bialowieza agreement on the termination of the existence of the USSR.
On November 30, 1991, a decree was signed by the President of the RSFSR on the appointment of Nemtsov as the head of the administration of the Gorky Region (since May 16, 1992 - the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On December 12, 1993, Nemtsov was elected to the Federation Council, his election campaign, according to the Kommersant newspaper, was financed by businessman Andrei Klimentyev.
November 29, 1994 Bank of New York mistakenly transferred 2 million dollars to the correspondent account of the investment commercial bank Nizhegorodets in the Nizhny Novgorod region, in fact the funds were intended for Nizhegorodpromstroybank. IKB Nizhegorodets, which was experiencing serious financial difficulties, did not return the money. An international scandal erupted: according to the then governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Boris Nemtsov, the US ambassador to Russia tried to protect the interests of the Bank of New York Thomas Pickering.
Pickering turned to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Chubais, who, on February 18, 1995, together with the head of the Central Bank of Russia, Tatyana Paramonova, instructed Governor Nemtsov in writing to take urgent measures to return the Bank of New York $ 2 million.
In turn, Nemtsov, in a letter on March 13, 1995, offered Chubais two ways out: either the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region takes a loan from Inkombank secured by federal property - the multi-storey office of the Nizhpoligraph state enterprise, or the federal budget allows the region to defer mandatory tax payments in the amount of 15 billion rubles for nine month. Chubais approved the Nizhpoligraph option, and the State Property Committee of Russia allowed the federal building to be pledged in order to obtain a loan from Inkombank. However, it was not the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region that borrowed the money, but the VZAO Nizhny Novgorod Fair, where the administration was and remains the main shareholder. The fair received $ 3.5 million from Inkombank to solve, in fact, other people's problems.
On April 18, 1995, a trilateral loan agreement was concluded between VZAO Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka (lender), ICB Nizhegorodets (borrower) and Bank of New York (borrower's lender). The fair undertook to transfer $ 1.114 million to the Bank of New York on account of the debt of the Nizhegorodets bank. The latter promised the fair within six months to repay the debt, taking into account 10% per annum.
On April 25, 1995, according to the payment order, $1.021 million was transferred to the Nizhegorodets bank (it was not explained why not $1.114 million). However, Nizhegorodets, already at the time of the conclusion of the contract, had debts of millions of dollars, did not fulfill its obligations to the fair and went bankrupt.
In 2005, Boris Nemtsov commented to Kommersant: "As far as I understand, there are no criminal cases against me." Meanwhile, commenting on the conflict between the Bank of New York and the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, Nemtsov noted that “Russia, as a state, returned the money stolen from it to the Bank of New York and did the right thing, because in America everyone believed that the Russian mafia stole the money.” Nemtsov also added that he did not understand what Gennady Khodyrev (in 2005, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region) was worried about: an official should not govern.
In 1996, the chief specialist of the State Committee for Federation and Nationalities of the Russian Federation, Olga Senatova, described the regime that had formed under Nemtsov's governorship as authoritarian.
According to O. Senatova, in the absence of control from the federal center (from 1991 to 1994 he combined the posts of head of administration and representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the region), Nemtsov established total control over the media, which hindered the activities of the opposition and contributed to the formation of an absolutely controlled legislative body of power - more than 60%, according to Senatova, it was made up of functionaries of the executive branch of all levels. According to O. Senatova, “the displacement of structures and individuals from local politics led to an inadequately large number of Nizhny Novgorod residents in the federal lists of parties and movements” - personalities ousted from local politics “rushed” to the federal level. Nemtsov was patronized by the federal center, which greatly contributed to the inflow of investments into the region. According to O. Senatova, Nemtsov provided patronage to a number of commercial firms (the Aroko firm, Boris Brevnov's Nizhny Novgorod Banking House bank, etc.), while at the same time complicating the activities of foreign or independent small companies. According to O. Senatova, the combination of a fairly effective domestic policy with the work of the "propaganda machine" ensured Nemtsov's high popularity among the population.
Journalist Vladimir Ionov does not agree with this and calls the assessment of Olga Senatova, who did not live in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a lie. In his publication, Ionov points to the openness of Governor Nemtsov to the media: “I have had occasion to attend unprecedentedly open operational meetings with the governor and write about him more than once.” Ionov also notes the lack of practice of taking interviews for preliminary proofreading and any consequences after the publication of critical articles against Governor Nemtsov.
Elections of the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, 1997
Sergey Borisov, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Research Foundation, in his study “The current political regime in the Nizhny Novgorod region: Formation in the 1990s” calls one of the “most natural consequences of the authoritarianization of the political regime” the formation around Nemtsov by the end of 1993 of an “informal alliance of individual representatives of the most influential, elite corporations”: the executive and legislative branches of government, local “siloviki”, entrepreneurs and media leaders. According to the expert, the period of Nemtsov's governorship is characterized by features characteristic of the regime of regional authoritarianism. The scientist believes that a liberal-populist version of such a regime has been implemented in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Alternative poles of political influence outside the ruling hierarchy were not suppressed by the administration of Governor Nemtsov, however, their possible strengthening was under close attention and was limited, as S. Borisov wrote, using a variety of means. The activity of representative bodies of power was also pushed aside by the governor's administration from the epicenter of the political process. At the same time, the expert noted, the political opposition was not perceived by the governor as something necessarily hostile, and was surrounded by "an atmosphere of a certain tolerance." The political rivals of the governor were forced out to the periphery of public life not by means of apparatus pressure, but by the methods of public policy.
Alexander Prudnik, an employee of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote that the events after January 1994 in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod region “represent a technology for intuitively working out new elements of managed democracy.” According to Prudnik, Nemtsov "blocked the path to the desired future for many talented Nizhny Novgorod residents - both the new generation of politicians and the new generation of entrepreneurs."
A collection of scientific papers from the Moscow Public Science Foundation stated that "Nemtsov's political leadership style can be described as intuitive, improvisational and moderately authoritarian."
In 1996, Yuri Kotov, head of the State Committee of the Republic of Chuvashia for Land Resources and Land Use, in an interview with the Business Sreda newspaper, highly appreciated Nemtsov's organizational skills. Speaking about the land reform carried out in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Kotov noted that Nemtsov “gave everyone the same starting opportunities. Those who were heartbroken for this cause, especially on earth, pulled it out. Some were able to open up as owners, owners, others were simply not ripe for this - accustomed to relying on the state, they ruined both collective farms and their own farms. And to scold Nemtsov for this is simply unfair.”
According to the information and expert group "Panorama", Nemtsov is one of the few heads of regional administrations who enjoyed relatively high popularity among the population. The correctness of the course of reforms chosen by him and the undestroyed system of distribution of cheap goods through large enterprises of the military-industrial complex, which employ a significant part of the population of the region, are noted. The absence of major conflicts with the regional Council, which approved the implementation of reforms, is also credited.
Nizhny Novgorod political scientist Sergei Kochergov credits Nemtsov with the resuscitation of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and the Gorky Automobile Plant, and success in land reform. The program of targeted social assistance is also noted, which was one of the first to be applied in Russia, and the experience was implemented in other regions.
Nemtsov vs Zhirinovsky. One on One (1995)
From April 24 to November 20, 1997, Boris Nemtsov also served as Minister of Fuel and Energy of Russia, from May 22, 1997 to October 1, 1998 - a member of the Russian Security Council.
In May 1997, on the recommendation of Nemtsov and with the assistance of Anatoly Chubais, 29-year-old Boris Brevnov from Nemtsov's entourage in Nizhny Novgorod joined the management of RAO UES of Russia. Later, the Accounts Chamber of Russia discovered numerous financial violations in Brevnov's activities, and in 1998 he lost his post. As Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted, “as a result of the Brevnov scandal, Nemtsov is actually losing control over RAO UES. Nemtsov is once again demoted: from the curator of the fuel and energy complex, he descends to the level of “providing the needs of the economy in fuel and energy.” Later, Nemtsov himself said that he sometimes made mistakes about the people he nominated for leadership, but stressed that "he had nothing to repent of."
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Nakoryakov, describing the activities of Nemtsov and his nominee, wrote: “The collapse of the Russian energy industry began with the arrival of absolute non-professionals in the leadership. The starting point can be called the arrival in the energy sector in the mid-90s of B. Nemtsov, B. Brevnov and their teams. Until a certain time, the technological backlog created in previous years was enough to withstand the efforts that the team of absolute amateurs in the energy and economics made to destroy the energy complex and lose control over it.”
In April 1997, according to the Public Opinion Foundation, 29% of Russians were ready to see Boris Nemtsov as a candidate for the post of President of Russia. At that moment, Boris Nemtsov was the leader in the presidential rating, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was in second place in popularity, then General, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky. In the second round, according to sociologists, Nemtsov would have defeated any of the mentioned politicians.
By the end of October 1999, according to a VTsIOM poll, Nemtsov's presidential approval rating had dropped to 1 percent.
According to Alexander Khinshtein, President Yeltsin, at a "no tie" meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto, held in Krasnoyarsk on November 1-2, 1997, announced the transfer of the Kuril Islands, and it was Nemtsov who persuaded the president to abandon his promise.
On November 4, 1997, First Deputy Prime Ministers Nemtsov and at a meeting with President Yeltsin sought the resignation of Boris Berezovsky from the post of Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. According to Yeltsin's memoirs, Nemtsov and Chubais at this meeting said that "a person who confuses business with politics cannot hold this position, they gave examples, they said that Berezovsky undermines the authority of the authorities in the country." The next day, a presidential decree was signed on the resignation of Berezovsky. According to Yeltsin's memoirs, the vice-premiers "gave a pretext" to get rid of Berezovsky, whom Yeltsin described as "an annoying 'shadow'".
On December 26, 1997, the State Duma adopted a resolution in which it described Nemtsov as an irresponsible and unskilled politician, suggesting that Yeltsin relieve him of his post.
In April 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.
By a decree of the Government of Russia dated May 15, 1998, Nemtsov was entrusted with the leadership of the commission of the Government of the Russian Federation on operational issues and the Interdepartmental commission on socio-economic problems of coal-mining regions.
In May-November 1997 and since May 1998, Nemtsov was also the chairman of the board of state representatives in RAO Gazprom.
Nemtsov is one of the initiators of the adoption of the Presidential Program for Management Training.
A few days after the default on August 17, 1998, the government of Sergei Kiriyenko was dismissed, Nemtsov became acting deputy chairman of the Russian government. According to the Profile magazine, Yeltsin called Nemtsov and said that he had nothing to do with the crisis, and therefore would work until the year 2000, but Nemtsov refused.
On August 24, 1998, Nemtsov submitted his resignation, which was granted by the decree of the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin on August 28, 1998.
As the Kommersant-Vlast magazine wrote, Nemtsov "did little to distinguish himself" as deputy prime minister: visit. Nemtsov was one of the brightest Duma speakers. As an asset, he can write down such a plus of the election campaign as the demand for a military reform. In liabilities - a failed tactical alliance with Yabloko.
On September 22, 1998, Nemtsov was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council for Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation (on a voluntary basis).
In December 1998, the socio-political movement "Young Russia" was established. Nemtsov was elected chairman of the federal political council of this movement. In the spring of 1999, Young Russia became part of the Just Cause coalition.
In early March 1999, information appeared in the press that Nemtsov and a number of other representatives of right-wing forces were on the list of candidates for the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia. On March 16, State Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznev announced that the Duma would not allow Nemtsov, Gaidar, Kirienko and B. Fedorov to be elected to the board of directors of this company. According to Seleznev, "The Right Cause electoral coalition would like to have a good sponsor in the form of RAO UES of Russia in the upcoming parliamentary elections, but these people have already made a mistake, and it is not clear what they have to do with energy." On March 22, Nemtsov announced his refusal to work for RAO UES of Russia.
On April 2, 1999, the State Duma of the Russian Federation expressed concern over the peacekeeping initiative of the group, in which Nemtsov participated, on Yugoslavia.
In August 1999, Nemtsov commented positively on his appointment as chairman of the Russian government: “For the ‘right’ forces, Putin is a completely acceptable figure. He is a hard-working, experienced and intelligent person, about the same level as Stepashin.
In September 1999, Chairman of the State Duma G. Seleznev called on the leaders of the Union of Right Forces to make public the sources of funding for their election bloc. Seleznev recalled the statement of one of the leaders of the Union of Right Forces, Nemtsov, that they were "non-poor people." The speaker of the State Duma noted that Nemtsov "does not work anywhere, that is, according to the old laws, he is a parasite." As Seleznev stated, in this case it is not clear where the SPS funds come from "for posters, advertising, and it is not clear what these guys live on."
At the end of 1999, together with Sergei Kiriyenko, he headed the list of the Union of Right Forces pre-election bloc. In December, he was elected to the State Duma in the 117th Avtozavodsky constituency of Nizhny Novgorod, served as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, member of the State Duma Committee on Legislation and leader of the SPS faction. He was one of the co-chairs of the Union of Right Forces party.
On November 27, 1999, Nemtsov called Vladimir Putin the most worthy person of all the candidates who intend to participate in the Russian presidential elections in 2000. He said that Putin should be the next president. According to Nemtsov, Putin is a responsible, honest person who is not afraid to make difficult decisions for himself and who will form a capable, responsible and competent government.
Subsequently, Nemtsov admitted support for Putin was erroneous, said that in fact he voted for Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential elections of 2000, and that he had never voted for Putin and objected to the support of Putin by the Union of Right Forces.
On April 28, 2001, at the fourth congress of Young Russia, the self-dissolution of this movement was announced on the eve of the creation of the Union of Right Forces party.
In 2003, he topped the list of the Union of Right Forces in the elections to the State Duma, which did not overcome the 5% threshold. After the defeat in the elections, he resigned from the post of chairman of the political council of the Union of Right Forces.
In 2004-2005, he was chairman of the board of directors of the Neftyanoy concern, whose president was Igor Linshits. According to the prosecutor's office, a criminal group operated in the bank, which was part of the concern, which, by carrying out illegal banking operations, received "criminal income in the amount of 57 billion rubles." After the start of inspections of the company, Boris Nemtsov left the concern, saying that he wanted to "eliminate any political risks in the business" of his friend Linshits. According to Nemtsov himself, he worked at the Neftyanoy concern, where he was engaged in the construction of commercial real estate in Moscow, but he never worked at the Neftyanoy bank. The case of embezzlement at the Neftyanoy bank was closed in 2010.
In 2004 he was elected to the board of the "Committee 2008: Free Choice".
On October 24-25, 2002, during the seizure of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, the terrorists, according to testimony, named Kobzon, Irina Khakamada and Nemtsov among the politicians with whom they agree to negotiate. Khakamada replied that she was ready and, in order to rescue the hostages, went with Kobzon to the Theater Center to meet with the terrorists, and Nemtsov said: "I need to agree" and disappeared. 10 years later, Nemtsov explained that he and Luzhkov were then forbidden to participate in negotiations with terrorists by V. Putin: “There was a direct call from Putin. And then Pronichev (chief of the operational headquarters) came up and said: you and Luzhkov should not go around ... I asked him to explain the reason to me. Pronichev told me: go to the Kremlin and sort things out. I came to Voloshin and asked him to explain what it all means. Voloshin told me: Putin does not like that your rating is growing..
In 2004, Nemtsov's party officially supported the Union of Right Forces during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine. During the Orange Revolution, Nemtsov became one of the few Russian politicians who came out in support of Yushchenko. Nemtsov visited Kyiv several times, speaking at "orange" rallies.
From February 2005 to October 2006 he was a non-staff adviser to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. According to Boris Nemtsov himself, “his advice cannot be called life-changing, but he did what he could”
In 2007, Nemtsov's book Confessions of a Rebel was published.
In September 2007, the SPS party congress approved Boris Nemtsov, along with Nikita Belykh and Marietta Chudakova, at the head of the SPS electoral list for the 2007 State Duma elections. During the election campaign, the Union of Right Forces made harsh criticism of the government headed by Vladimir Putin.
In November 2007, during the election campaign to the State Duma, a number of media outlets published a statement by the first issue of the SPS regional group for Ingushetia, Vakha Evloev, who characterized Nemtsov's activities, including as party leader, in an extremely negative way. Political scientist Alexander Kynev called this statement "a PR campaign to discredit one of the political parties", suggesting that it was made under duress.
In December 2007, the Union of Right Forces congress nominated Boris Nemtsov as a candidate for the post of President of Russia to participate in the elections in March 2008. As of December 2007, Nemtsov's presidential rating was less than 1% On December 26, even before the start of the election campaign, Nemtsov withdrew his candidacy in favor of Mikhail Kasyanov.
Following the December 2007 Duma elections, Russian presidential candidates Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Bukovsky, and Mikhail Kasyanov issued a joint statement saying that the past campaign was dishonest and listing numerous reasons that prompted them to come to that conclusion.
In their statement, Bukovsky, Kasyanov and Nemtsov pledged, if one of them wins the presidential election, to dissolve the State Duma of the fifth convocation and to call new elections as soon as possible, which “will be held in accordance with the standards of multi-party democracy, with freedom of speech, transparency of all procedures and equal opportunities for all participants”. None of these candidates were subsequently admitted to the presidential elections on March 2, 2008.
On February 12, 2008, the presentation of the “independent expert report” by Boris Nemtsov in collaboration with Vladimir Milov “Putin. Results". On the same day, Boris Nemtsov announced the suspension of his membership in the Union of Right Forces, refusing to comment on this decision.
On April 5, 2008, Nemtsov took part in the conference "A New Agenda for the Democratic Movement" in St. Petersburg.
On November 15, 2008, at an extraordinary congress, the SPS party announced its self-dissolution. On the basis of the liquidated parties of the Union of Right Forces, Civil Force and the DPR, a new party "Just Cause" was created. Nemtsov was one of the persistent opponents of the dissolution of the Union of Right Forces, called Right Cause a "Kremlin project" and actively tried to convince his party comrades to abandon the voluntary liquidation of the Union of Right Forces, but the majority decided otherwise. A minority of the former SPS members, including Boris Nemtsov, refused to participate in Right Cause.
On December 13, 2008, at the first congress of the United Democratic Movement "Solidarity" he was elected a member of the federal political council of "Solidarity" and became a member of the bureau of the federal political council of the movement.
In March 2009, Boris Nemtsov announced his intention to participate as a candidate in the election of the mayor of the city of Sochi. He made this decision after he received an appeal from a group of Sochi residents with a request to stand as a candidate in the elections. On March 28, 2009, the municipal election commission officially registered Nemtsov as a candidate for mayor of the city of Sochi.
According to official data, the former mayor of Anapa, Anatoly Pakhomov, won by a significant margin in the first round, receiving 76.86% of the vote. Nemtsov came in second with 13.6% of the vote. The third place was taken by communist Yury Dzagania with a score of 6.75 percent.
On March 10, 2010, Nemtsov, among the first opposition figures, signed the appeal "Putin must go."
On August 7, 2010, Nemtsov climbed Mount Elbrus, the highest point in Russia and Europe, where he raised the Solidarity flag. According to Nemtsov, "the main stimulus for the ascent was to raise the opposition flag to a hitherto unattainable height, which I did."
Access to federal TV channels was closed to Nemtsov during these years due to strict censorship. According to Vladimir Pozner in May 2015, despite the fact that Nemtsov was of undoubted interest to viewers, he could not invite the politician to his program on Channel One due to prohibitions, although he really wanted to and tried to do it many times.
Nemtsov was detained on December 31, 2010 after the end of a rally agreed with the Moscow authorities on Triumfalnaya Square as part of the Strategy-31 campaign. By the decision of the justice of the peace of the Tverskoy district of Moscow, Borovkova O. Yu. Nemtsov was found guilty of committing an administrative offense under part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (disobedience to a lawful order or demand of a police officer, military serviceman or employee of a body or institution of the penitentiary system in connection with performance of their duties to protect public order and ensure public safety, as well as obstructing the performance of their official duties), was sentenced to administrative arrest for a period of 15 days.
According to Lyudmila Alekseeva, who was present at the trial, as well as the statements of numerous witnesses to the arrest of Boris Nemtsov, the charges against him were falsified, and the court's decision was unjust. Lyudmila Alekseeva on the air of Ekho Moskvy said that human rights activists will now begin to bring to trial police officers who give false testimony at trials of participants in civil rallies and demonstrations.
On January 4, 2011, the international human rights organization Amnesty International recognized Boris Nemtsov as a prisoner of conscience. Ilya Yashin and Konstantin Kosyakin, who were detained and subsequently convicted along with Boris Nemtsov, were also recognized as prisoners of conscience.
In July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights found that Nemtsov had violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of assembly. The court considered that Nemtsov's administrative detention and arrest were unlawful and pursued goals unrelated to the grounds for deprivation of liberty invoked by the authorities. The court decided to pay Nemtsov compensation in the amount of 28.5 thousand euros (26 thousand for non-pecuniary damage and 2.5 for reimbursement of legal costs).
Since 2010, Nemtsov has been actively promoting the adoption of the "Magnitsky list" in the European Union and the United States. imposing personal sanctions against those responsible for violating human rights and the rule of law. November 16, 2010 Nemtsov spoke in the US Congress at the evening in memory of Sergei Magnitsky after Senator Cardin, the author of the bill. Nemtsov proposed simultaneously with the adoption of the list to cancel the outdated Jackson-Vanik amendment with respect to Russia.
On February 16, 2012, Nemtsov handed over to the member of the European Parliament, the initiator of the resolution "On the rule of law in Russia" Kristina Ojuland, the "Nemtsov list" as an addition to the "Magnitsky list" and the "Khodorkovsky list". The list includes 11 names: from Vladimir Putin to Vasily Yakimenko.
Governor
In the late 1980s, Nemtsov became an activist in the environmental movement, fought against the construction of the Gorky Nuclear Heating Plant. In 1990 he was elected a People's Deputy of the RSFSR. In 1991, he became a confidant of Boris Yeltsin in the Nizhny Novgorod region during the presidential elections in Russia. “When the president sent him as his confidant to the Nizhny Novgorod region, Nemtsov did not receive a coupon for a personal car, he lived in the city in a one-room apartment with his mother,” says Ivan Rybkin, chairman of the State Duma from 1994 to 1996.
In December 1991, Yeltsin appointed Nemtsov head of the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Large-scale reforms in the region began in 1992, when the economist Grigory Yavlinsky and the EPIcenter headed by him proposed to the young head of the region a development strategy for the Nizhny Novgorod region - the Nizhny Novgorod Prologue. “There, the entire former administration fled after the coup, and he needed help,” Yavlinsky recalls.
As governor, Nemtsov met Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, and Leonid Gozman, former deputy chairman of the Union of Right Forces, knows: Gaidar and Chubais traveled to the Nizhny Novgorod region, where small-scale privatization was carried out as a pilot project; Nemtsov was enthusiastic about this undertaking, gradually the professional relationship turned into a deep personal one. Offices, trucks and means of production went into the ownership of entrepreneurs, auctions were held live, recalls Nina Zvereva, a Nizhny Novgorod journalist, Nemtsov's confidant in the gubernatorial elections and the State Duma. Nemtsov gave loans to businesses without interest, investments appeared, he also agreed with European banks on guarantees, 200 processing plants were built in the region.
The Nizhny Novgorod Region was the first to launch a regional bond issue. This solved the money problem, and the loan was subsequently paid in full. “The main problems were galloping inflation and rising unemployment. Under these conditions, it was very difficult to protect the population,” says Yavlinsky. According to him, they came up with a special loan, with the funds from which fuels and lubricants were purchased. Fuel and lubricants became a reserve, which, in conditions of very rapid inflation, made it possible to save the invested funds - the region even traded these fuels and lubricants with its neighbors. “Different systems of social indicators were used to keep large groups of the population from sliding into poverty, for the first time a one-stop-shop system was introduced for registration, and all private entrepreneurs were guaranteed protection on behalf of the regional administration,” Yavlinsky lists.
When Rybkin became chairman of the State Duma, Nemtsov came to him with the head of the Gorky Automobile Plant, Nikolai Pugin, and began to talk about how important it was to preserve the plant. “But the models were painfully not so hot,” Rybkin recalls. - They proposed to create a small car and name it in honor of Yeltsin - "GAZ-Yellow".
“Nizhny Novgorod was then the advanced region of Russia, there was a feeling that in this boiler we would weld a new Russia,” Zvereva says. She also recalls Nemtsov as a “talented promoter” of all her projects: “In 1993, Margaret Thatcher came to Nizhny. When they opened a new road from Nizhny to Dzerzhinsk, he put a glass of vodka on the hood, and the car drove at a speed of 80 km per hour - the task was not to spill it to show the quality of the roads.
In December 1995, Nemtsov was elected to a second term, winning with a score of 58.37%. “Then disappointment came to him: he perceived the first coffins after the first Chechen campaign as a huge tragedy and a mistake by the Kremlin. Nemtsov arranged a funeral for the guys from Nizhny on Gorky Square, collected signatures for the abolition of the war in Chechnya, which caused Yeltsin's strong anger, ”says Zvereva. In 1996, Nemtsov collected a million signatures against the war in Chechnya: “I loaded the folders into GAZelle and brought them to Moscow. I left the GAZelle on Vasilyevsky Spusk, pulled out one pack with signature sheets and went to the Kremlin.
young reformer
In March 1997, Nemtsov was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. He and Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais immediately began to be called young reformers. Yeltsin later recalled how he came to the decision to call Nemtsov to Moscow: “I came to Nizhny Novgorod, where he was governor. We talked a lot with him, then I wandered around enterprises, shops, met people and realized that the attitude towards him was good. The person, it is immediately evident, is energetic, intelligent, which means that we need to raise him. This is generally my principle in the selection of personnel. A person should be promoted to a new position until he has grown a little to this position.
In his autobiography, the first Russian president says that Nemtsov "promised by his very appearance to provide the government with a completely different resource of trust." “And a completely different political climate in the country. By the way, none of the young categorically wanted to go to either the government or the Kremlin. Everyone actively resisted ... Chubais almost shouted at Boris: "Since you are so smart, you criticize us, so take at least some of the responsibility." But Nemtsov calmly went home. Well, and a stubborn character ... Perhaps, it looks like mine, ”Yeltsin recalled. As a result, Nemtsov was persuaded to join the government by the President's daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko.
In the government, Nemtsov oversaw the social bloc, housing and communal services and construction, natural monopolies and antimonopoly policy. Yeltsin, in an interview with Moscow News in 2003, told how, at the initiative of Nemtsov, he signed a decree on holding open tenders among private firms that carried out state deliveries.
“In the government, he was among the mainstream, almost all of his initiatives were supported, since he was on the side of the majority,” recalls former Minister of Labor and Social Development Oksana Dmitrieva. Yevgeny Gontmakher, former head of the social development department of the government apparatus, said that they worked together on pension reform: “We went to Chile and studied their reform. Boris Efimovich was very excited about the idea of introducing a funded part. I watched how he tried to start reforming the electric power industry, tried to introduce market relations in the oil and gas industry, but it didn’t work out.”
From April to November 1997, while remaining Deputy Prime Minister, Nemtsov served as Minister of Fuel and Energy. In this capacity, Nemtsov headed the board of state representatives on the board of Gazprom and proclaimed a course towards the demonopolization of the gas industry. He prepared for Yeltsin a decree "On the main provisions of the structural reform in the spheres of natural monopolies." It proposed to liberalize four monopolies at once - the electric power industry, the gas industry, railways and communications, sharply distinguishing between competitive and monopoly activities.
The concern, which was headed by Rem Vyakhirev, one of the associates of the then Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, responded with stiff resistance. The "Gazprom" insert in the newspapers "Trud" and "Working Tribune" began to expose the "young reformers" who, at the behest of the IMF, were going to dismember Gazprom. At that time, Gazprom managed to fight off the reforms, but the electric power industry was still reformatted - during the reform of RAO UES of Russia in 2003-2008.
Nemtsov initiated the adoption of the most important decisions on the return of state control over the energy industry, in particular over Gazprom, recalls Boris Nadezhdin (he worked in the apparatus of the Deputy Prime Minister). At that time, Gazprom was an independent company, it did not pay taxes, in addition, a secret agreement was discovered in the archives of the government, which allowed the concern (it was led by Vyakhirev) to acquire a state-owned stake in its shares for little money, the politician said. According to him, Nemtsov sought to cancel the treaty, went to President Yeltsin, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a native of Gazprom, was against it.
The well-known speculator George Soros, in an interview with The Guardian in 2000, recalled how Nemtsov did not let Boris Berezovsky into Gazprom. In June 1997, Berezovsky invited Soros to Sochi for a meeting with Chernomyrdin, and took the American back to Moscow on his plane: “On the way, he said that both Chubais and Nemtsov supported his candidacy. I did not believe it and asked Nemtsov himself. He heard about it for the first time. "Only over my dead body," he reacted.
Almost the only fair privatization deal of the 1990s is associated with the name of Nemtsov. A blocking stake in Svyazinvest was sold in 1997 for an unprecedented $1.875 billion to a consortium of investors led by Vladimir Potanin and Soros. Subsequently, Soros called this investment the worst in his life. “I remember well how you burned your reputation by standing up against the attempts of B. and G. [Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky] to grab Svyazinvest for themselves, which cost you your career - when Yeltsin later told you that he was “tired of defending you” , - politician Vladimir Milov wrote on his blog this weekend.
Nemtsov also contributed to the development of mobile communications in Russia. In the summer of 1998, as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of telecom, he issued an order to supplement the license for building a GSM network issued to VimpelCom (the owner of the Beeline network) - the company received additional frequencies. This allowed it to compete on equal terms with another market pioneer - Mobile Telesystems (MTS) - the then deputy general director of VimpelCom, Nikolai Pryanishnikov, said in 2000 that, if it were not for Nemtsov's order, prices in the capital's cellular market would be one and a half times higher , and the number of subscribers - one and a half times lower.
Among Nemtsov's reforms were those that were made to be laughed at, one of them was an attempt to transfer officials to the Volga. Nadezhdin says that by the time the reform was announced, he had saved up $20,000 to replace his old Volga with a foreign car, but Nemtsov told him that he would have to buy a new Volga. Being a loyal official, Nadezhdin went to a factory in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where they assembled a beautiful car for him, in which only the body was from the Volga, and the filling was from a foreign car. The car cost exactly the accumulated $ 20 thousand, says Nadezhdin. But the car did not reach Moscow: some technical difficulties prevented a reliable connection of the domestic body and the foreign mechanism, the politician explains - the rear axle fell out of the car all the time. It took Nadezhdin three trips to the factory before the car became reliable. Many officials also obeyed the instructions and moved to the Volga, Nadezhdin recalls. Nemtsov himself drove a car of the same brand with a mechanism from a Mercedes. But it did not last long, the idea did not take root.
Nemtsov and Nadezhdin were dismissed from the government at the same time - after the default of 1998, the government of Sergei Kiriyenko was dismissed. A small man in a black suit with a group of doctors walked around the offices of the dismissed officials, he explained to Nadezhdin that he had been informing officials about the dismissal since Soviet times, many became ill, the source said. Nadezhdin and Nemtsov, after their dismissal, went to the Gorbaty Bridge in the center of Moscow, where the miners protested for a long time, banging their helmets. After informing the protesters that they "got through and they were fired," the former officials drank vodka with the miners and parted amicably, Nadezhdin said.
Nemtsov recalled that Yeltsin offered him to stay, but Nemtsov himself did not want to be a black sheep in the new government.
Yeltsin admitted that he saw Nemtsov as his possible successor. However, he rejected this candidacy, because he was sure that voters would not support the right in the elections. Nemtsov himself spoke of this as follows: “Indeed, Yeltsin at one time wanted me to be the successor. After all, I was a successful governor who managed to do something useful in Nizhny: they laid 2,000 km of roads, restored churches, and provided housing for the military. And this is the reason for such a high rating. And he fell because my arrival in Moscow was under the slogan "We will dismantle gangster capitalism!" It was the slogan of the fight against the oligarchs. Then the oligarchy started an information war of extermination against us, and since Berezovsky and Gusinsky owned the leading Russian TV channels, they destroyed my rating with the help of information technology, that's the whole story. Then the oligarchs were supported by Tatyana Dyachenko, the daughter of Boris Yeltsin, and Yeltsin's inner circle, in particular the head of his administration, Valentin Yumashev. It was then called in one word - "Family".
Deputy
In 1998, the politician created the Young Russia movement, which in August 1999 joined the Union of Right Forces (SPS) bloc. The Union of Right Forces in the elections of 1999-2000 put forward the slogan: “Putin - for president, Kiriyenko - for the State Duma. We need young people!”
Nemtsov personally supported Vladimir Putin. “I believe that Russia should elect a new president, honest, physically strong and responsible. I am convinced that the next president should be Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. If famous people do not twist his arms and legs now, then, I am convinced, he has every chance to be voted for. At least I will support him in every possible way, ”he said at a debate on the air of the Ekho Moskvy radio station on November 27, 1999.
The Union of Right Forces entered the Duma, and Nemtsov became deputy chairman of the lower house of parliament.
Nemtsov had a reputation for being an absolutely honest person, everyone knew that he could be trusted with any money, and this was in an environment where not everyone behaved like that, Gozman points out. According to him, having headed the political council of the Union of Right Forces, Nemtsov managed to ensure that the party remained independent from sponsors: he introduced a rule according to which none of them could finance it by more than 10% of its budget - then the Union of Right Forces willingly donated, it was not dangerous.
As a deputy, Nemtsov continued to speak out against the war in Chechnya. In 2000, in Nazran, he, along with a group of other deputies, signed a five-point protocol stating that there was no military solution to the problem, so peace negotiations should begin, in which "people elected by the people will participate." “We believe that the main goal of all efforts is to create conditions for the return of refugees, to eradicate terrorism and banditry,” Nemtsov said.
The SPS faction in the State Duma was the smallest, but its influence was great - this would not have been possible without the participation of its leader, who was Nemtsov, Gozman says. Nemtsov knew how to gather professional staff, such people worked in the apparatus of the faction - in particular, Nadezhdin, agrees Nemtsov's former press secretary Lilia Dubovaya. In addition, Nemtsov carried 70 percent of the public activity of the entire faction: unlike many, he willingly spoke in front of television cameras and knew how to do it, Dubovaya explains.
Nemtsov was a professional public politician, he did not like routine work, he was a “fireworks man” - he had a lot of ideas, but they were embodied if there were people ready to implement them, Dubovaya notes. He liked to appear "lightweight," but he really wasn't, says Gozman: before sitting relaxed at a government meeting and asking supposedly random questions, he prepared seriously, requested a lot of documents and consulted with experts.
Nemtsov was wary of Putin, but during his first term he was forced to show loyalty, obeying party discipline and the positions of Chubais and Gaidar, Dubovaya said. After losing the SPS in the 2003 parliamentary elections and after leaving Chubais's party, Nemtsov's position became more and more rigid, and after the unsuccessful 2007 elections for the party, he finally went over to the opposition, she recalls.
Gozman recalls how the SPS ceased to exist. In November 2008, at the last congress, a decision was made on the participation of the organization in the Kremlin project "Just Cause" (PD). Then the Union of Right Forces was supposed to unite with Andrei Bogdanov's "Democratic Party of Russia" and Mikhail Barshchevsky's "Civil Force", although both organizations were considered "spoiler" in the party. This was the only alternative to dissolution that was proposed by the SPS authorities: the party had serious financial problems. The positions of Nemtsov and Gozman, who later became one of the three co-chairs of the PD, then diverged diametrically. At the congress, Gozman - acting. chairman of the Union of Right Forces - he urged his comrades-in-arms to take advantage of the chance given by the authorities. Nemtsov, who suspended his party membership shortly after the failed election, arrived at the congress calling for the preservation of the SPS and announcing that he had found funding. When the delegates asked who exactly would finance the party, Nemtsov refused to answer, saying only that he was talking about Russian businessmen. As a result, 90% of the congress supported the proposal to participate in the PD, recalls Gozman.
Oppositionist
In December 2008, Nemtsov joined the presidium and political council of the established opposition movement Solidarity.
In the same year, Nemtsov, together with Milov, prepared a large-scale report criticizing Putin's activities as president and prime minister of Russia. For the first time in the report, it was popularly told about the business of Putin's friends. “Now everyone knows who the Rotenbergs and Timchenko are, but then you were the enthusiast of this anti-corruption topic. You were the first to bring this topic into the mainstream in such a way that everyone would talk about it,” Milov writes about Nemtsov.
In July 2009, Nemtsov headed the Solidarity headquarters for elections to the Moscow City Duma. All candidates from the movement were denied registration. Nemtsov continued his political struggle: in 2010, together with former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, politicians Milov and Vladimir Ryzhkov, he announced the creation of an opposition coalition "For Russia Without Arbitrariness and Corruption." The political party created on its basis to participate in the presidential and parliamentary elections was established in December 2010, called the Party of People's Freedom (PARNAS). In June 2012, PARNAS merged with Ryzhkov's Republican Party of Russia, which restored registration with the Ministry of Justice, and Nemtsov became one of the RPR-PARNAS co-chairs.
On December 16, 2010, in the TV program “Conversations with Vladimir Putin”, the then head of government answered questions that he himself selected. After reading a question from an unknown author, “What do Nemtsov, Ryzhkov, Milov, and so on really want?”, the Prime Minister replied: “Money and power, what else do they want?! At one time, they stormed, in the 90s, together with Berezovsky and those who are now in prison, whom we remembered today [Mikhail Khodorkovsky], they stole many billions.”
In January 2011, Nemtsov filed a lawsuit against Putin with the Moscow City Court for the protection of honor and dignity on the fact of slander. In February, the lawsuit was dismissed because, according to the court, "the names of Nemtsov, Ryzhkov and Milov were used not as proper names, but only in the nominal meaning of these names to designate a certain class of political figures."
Nemtsov was one of the main leaders of the protest rallies on Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Avenue in 2011-2012. “The demands of our rally: the immediate cancellation of the fake elections. Deputies, if they believe that they are with the people, are obliged to surrender their mandates. They are not deputies at all, they crawled into the Duma like thieves, and no one will believe them, ”he said at a rally on Bolotnaya Square on December 10.
Deputy-2
“In Yaroslavl in the summer of 2013, people’s mayor Yevgeny Urlashov was arrested; was not found, so the appearance of Boris Nemtsov was quite logical, ”recalls Andrey Alekseev, chairman of the regional branch of the Progress Party.
They arrived in August 2013 and suggested that the December 5 Party and the People's Alliance create a coalition and go to the polls together, Nemtsov headed the list and in total recruited candidates for all districts for three parties, Alekseev says.
“There was a serious struggle, the advantage was on the side of the authorities, we earned one mandate, and Boris Nemtsov got it. Nobody believed that he would remain working in the region, they thought that he would hand over the mandate, but his position was that he would remain. This amazed many - at first there was great skepticism, but in the end, many changed their attitude towards him. He fulfilled his obligations,” Alekseev said.
Nemtsov investigated the activities of Yaroslavl officials, regularly published the results on his Facebook page, some of them were reported by federal publications. Two high-ranking Yaroslavl officials - Vice Governor Alexander Senin and head of the regional health department Sergei Wunderwald - resigned after Nemtsov's revelations. The politician found out that the wife of the first - the curator of the regional department of health and pharmacy - works in the pharmaceutical industry, and her company wins regional competitions for the purchase of medicines. Nemtsov appealed to the Investigative Committee, after which the governor of the region, Sergei Yastrebov, was summoned to the Kremlin, and he fired Senin, followed from Nemtsov's messages.
“Nemtsov ruined a career in the region for many people. He did everything brightly, ”Anton Golitsyn, deputy chairman of the Communist Party faction, told RBC. Nemtsov began investigating inflated budget spending on healthcare about a year ago, Mikhail Maglov, head of the Municipal Scanner project, recalls: “He asked for help to check the costs of purchasing medicines for cancer patients after Senin once again asked the regional duma for additional funds.”
Later, Nemtsov accused the governor of the Yaroslavl region himself of a conflict of interest, demanding his resignation, says Maglov. Yastrebov's daughter Elena works for the R-Pharm pharmaceutical company, which supplies medicines to the region, in particular for cancer patients, at inflated prices, he told the Kommersant newspaper. During 2014, Nemtsov brought several more charges against the governor: he reported that Yastrebov had an undeclared estate worth 15-23 million rubles. in the local village of Muzhevo, as well as the purchase of an apartment for her daughter in a townhouse in New Riga.
But Nemtsov failed to achieve the resignation of Yastrebov. Yastrebov, when asked by RBC whether he considered Nemtsov's anti-corruption activities useful for the region, answered in monosyllables: "Yes."
“Everyone must decide for himself whether he is ready to take risks or not. I can only speak for myself. I am happy that I can tell the truth, be myself and not grovel before the miserable, thieving authorities. Freedom is expensive,” Nemtsov wrote on his Facebook page two months ago.
Russian politician and statesman, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region (1991-1997), Minister of Fuel and Energy (April-November 1997), Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (1997-1998), People's Deputy of Russia (1991-1993), Deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma sixth convocation. Killed in the center of Moscow on February 27, 2015. On October 9, 2019, Boris Nemtsov would have turned 60 years old.
In December 1999, he was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the third convocation. In January-May 2000, he was Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the third convocation, since May 2000 - the head of the Union of Right Forces faction, was a member of the State Duma Committee on Legislation.
Until the end of his life he was one of the leaders of the opposition.
Late on the evening of February 27, 2015, Nemtsov was killed on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow with several point-blank shots. At the time of the murder of Nemtsov, Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya was next to him, who at the time of the murder was the only direct eyewitness to the event. After the appearance of information about the murder, dozens of people began to come to the scene of the tragedy with flowers.
On March 3, 2015, a civil memorial service for Boris Nemtsov was held at the Sakharov Center in Moscow, after which the funeral column went to the cemetery. By the time the civil memorial service was over, so many people came to the Sakharov Center on Zemlyanoy Val that the queue stretched for 700 meters - to the Chkalovskaya metro station. The funeral of Boris Nemtsov took place at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.
Five people were arrested in connection with the murder of Boris Nemtsov: Zaur Dadaev, Anzor Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhaev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Shagid Gubashev. In addition, Chechen officers Ruslan Mukhudinov, Ruslan Geremeev and Beslan Shavanov, who was killed during the arrest, appear in the case. On June 29, 2016, all five defendants were found guilty of killing the politician. Details of the investigation and the trial are presented in the reference "Chechen trace in the murder of Nemtsov".
Boris Nemtsov and the Chechen war
During the First Chechen War, Boris Nemtsov, as the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, many of whose soldiers died during the storming of Grozny, took an openly anti-war position. According to the producer of the documentary film about Nemtsov "A Very Free Man" Yevgeny Gindilis, this was the sharpest conflict between Nemtsov and Boris Yeltsin in the entire history of their relationship.
In January 1995, Nemtsov, without coordinating his trip with Moscow, flew to Chechnya, to the Russian base in Mozdok and Khasavyurt, to bring food, gifts, awards to soldiers from the Nizhny Novgorod region, and also to discuss the ransom of a captured Russian officer from Nizhny Novgorod. A film crew flew with him - journalist Nina Zvereva with a cameraman, who filmed a report in Khasavyurt about ordinary soldiers who had barely completed the course of a young fighter and ended up in Chechnya: "We filmed, we went into a dugout. This is a famous report. Recently it was posted on the Internet and another hundred thousand people watched, although this is the beginning of 1995. I have never seen anything like it in my life. And he [Nemtsov] suddenly said to me: "Well done."
At the beginning of 1996, on the initiative of Boris Nemtsov, signatures were collected in the Nizhny Novgorod region for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. On January 29, 1996, these signatures were handed over to President Yeltsin. According to Nemtsov's memoirs, Yeltsin was then offended: "He was very angry, but did nothing to me. The only thing was that he turned off the telephone for direct communication with him."
Participation in the elections of the mayor of Sochi
On the eve of the elections Nemtsov together with Vladimir Milov presented a report "Sochi and the Olympics". The main conclusion that the authors made is that the Olympics need to be decentralized, or be prepared to lose the right to host it.
On the day of the nomination, Nemtsov wrote in his LiveJournal: “In terms of the scale of problems and significance, Sochi is currently the second city after Moscow. So the work of the mayor is the work of the federal level. I am grateful to my colleagues from Solidarity, who unanimously supported my candidacy I see it as my main task as mayor to protect the people of Sochi from the corrupt and investment banditry that is happening here.
About the Olympics. Having carefully studied the situation, I come to an unequivocal conclusion: the Winter Olympics in a subtropical resort is a large-scale adventure and scam. Can you imagine what hockey stadiums and speed skating fields will be like when the Olympics are over? What will happen to the reserve "Western Caucasus" in the process of preparation for the Olympics? What scale will be the transport collapse in the city, which is already experiencing an extreme shortage of roads?
My position. It is for Sochi to maintain the status of the Olympic capital by holding the opening and closing of the Olympics there, as well as competitions in alpine skiing, bobsleigh and ski jumping. The remaining competitions will be held in other cities. Hockey, figure skating and skating - in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Yaroslavl, biathlon and skiing in Kolomna or Khanty-Mansiysk. The possibility of decentralization is provided for by the Olympic Charter and will be implemented at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. This decision will make it possible to preserve Sochi as the last subtropical resort, avoid an environmental and transport disaster, create a European-class ski resort in Russia, improve winter sports in the country and, most importantly, hold the Olympics with dignity and without losses in the future."
Anatoly Pakhomov, a United Russia representative, took first place in the elections with 76.8 percent of the vote. Nemtsov received over 13 percent, finishing in second place.
According to the Union of Right Forces, these data entered into a serious contradiction with the exit poll data published the day before, collected by Nemtsov's headquarters. According to the head of the candidate's campaign headquarters, Ilya Yashin, on his blog, according to the results of a survey of voters who left the polling stations, Pakhomov won about 46 percent of the vote. About 35 percent of Sochi residents voted for Nemtsov, according to his headquarters.
The elections were accompanied by scandals. In particular, Nemtsov was doused with water and ammonia by unidentified persons during one of his speeches.
The Sochi police arrested his campaign materials and detained activists from his headquarters.
On May 30, 2013, Nemtsov, together with a member of the Solidarity movement, presented a new report "Winter Olympics in the Subtropics".
“The Winter Olympics in Sochi is Putin’s personal project… It is becoming more and more obvious that the Sochi Olympics is an unprecedented thieves’ scam, in which both representatives of Putin’s government and oligarchs close to it are involved… In fact, the Olympics highlighted in a concentrated form the main flaws of the system arbitrariness, corruption, tyranny, clannishness, unprofessionalism, irresponsibility".
As Nemtsov reported in his LiveJournal, the report was prepared for six months and published in a small edition of 5,000 copies. "Nevertheless, we believe that the report should be available not only online, but also offline. Therefore, we plan to publish an additional edition of the report and distribute it in Russian cities," Nemtsov wrote.
Nemtsov bridge
Already an hour after the murder, people began to come to the bridge. After the body of Boris Nemtsov was removed and the cordon was removed, flowers began to be left at the scene of the murder. On the afternoon of February 28, there was already a mountain of flowers here, as well as a large number of photographs of the deceased, posters, icons, lamps, Russian flags with mourning ribbons. The memorial stretched for more than 120 meters (for the entire length of the parapet towards Vasilyevsky Spusk).
In the very first days after the murder, a proposal appeared to rename the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge to the Nemtsov Bridge, but it was not accepted by the authorities. In the future, this name was transferred to a spontaneous memorial that arose on the bridge. At first, there was no systematic vigil at the memorial. The first community work day to take care of the memorial took place a week after the murder, and several dozen people (according to some estimates, up to a hundred) already worked on the community work day on March 21.
Permanent and round-the-clock duty arose on the night of March 28-29. The reason for this was the repeated organized attacks on the memorial. In general, the history of the memorial on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge is the history of its destruction by Gormost and ideological opponents. They were especially frequent in the first months of 2016 - from the new year to May 9, the memorial was completely destroyed twelve times.
The center of the memorial is located directly on the spot where B.E. Nemtsov was killed. Every day at 23:31 a "minute of silence" is held. Since March 28, 2015, the memory watch on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge has not been interrupted, except in cases where the attendants were removed by force (for example, during public events). A website dedicated to Boris Nemtsov and the work of the memorial has been created: https://nemtsov-most.org.
Notes
- Biography of Boris Nemtsov // RIA Novosti, 28.02.2015.
- Execution at the Kremlin: Boris Nemtsov was killed in Moscow // RBC, 28.02.2015.
- Residents of Moscow brought flowers to the place of death of Nemtsov // Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 28.02.2015.
- Personal stories of Prokhorov, Fridman, Navalny, Khakamada about Nemtsov, which were not included in the film "Too Free Man". Special broadcast on the second anniversary of the murder of Boris Nemtsov // Rain, 02/27/2017.
- What do you remember about Boris Nemtsov? // AiF, 28.02.2015.
- "Too free man." What we learned from the film biography of Boris Nemtsov // Meduza, 02/07/2017.
- Yeltsin's friend, Putin's enemy: what mark Boris Nemtsov left in politics // RBC, 02/28/2015.
- How Boris Nemtsov collected a million signatures in 1996 // Topic of the Day, 12/26/2000.
- GUEST Boris Nemtsov // Ekho Moskvy, 12/27/2002.
- Nemtsov B.E. Confessions of a rebel. M., 2007. S. 129-130.
- Nemtsov and Milov presented a report on the Olympiad // Website of the Union of Right Forces, 04/13/2009.
- Sochi. Mayoral elections // Boris Nemtsov, LiveJournal, 05/30/2013.
- Pakhomov gains 76.86% and wins the election of the mayor of Sochi in the first round // RIA Novosti, 04/27/2009.
- The Germans lost the election of the mayor of Sochi // SPS website, 04/27/2009.
- The first scandal in the election of the mayor of Sochi. Boris Nemtsov was doused with ammonia // General newspaper, 03/23/2009.
- Sochi police arrested Nemtsov's campaign leaflets // RIA Novosti, 04.04.2009.
- Nemtsov campaign headquarters activist detained in Adler // Kommersant, 04/09/2009.
- Nemtsov presented a report on corruption in the preparation of the Sochi Olympics // Forbes, 05/30/2013.
- Winter Olympics in the subtropics. Independent expert report by Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk. Moscow, 2013 // Putin. Results.
- Winter Olympics in the subtropics // Boris Nemtsov. LiveJournal, 05/30/2013.
- Here and below: Nemtsov Bridge: memorialization and conflict of interest // Website Gefter.ru, 01/09/2017
