The Interfax news agency reports that the police are now in possession of the license plate number of the car driven by the persons responsible for murdering of the Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
According to Interfax's source with the police, the license plate belongs to either a Ford Focus or a Ford Mondeo. The police have not yet located the car. The police have also begun reviewing the CCTV footage of the murder scene, but no results have been reported thus far.
The investigators are currently interviewing Anna Duritskaya, the Ukrainian model who was with Nemtsov at the time of his murder and is thus the key witness of the murder. Little is known about Duritskaya's identity otherwise.
Meanwhile, Russia's state news agency TASS reports that Nemtsov's murderer surveilled his victim and knew the route Nemtsov was taking "very well."
Boris Nemtsov was murdered two days before a planned opposition March, "Spring" ("Vesna"). Leonid Volkov, one of the organizers of the match, suggested cancelling the event and holding a memorial procession for Nemtsov instead. Officials of RPR-PARNAS, the political party co-founded by Boris Nemtsov, have called for a public gathering at the site of Nemtsov's murder at 11:40 tomorrow morning to honor the politician. Like Volkov, members of RPR-PARNAS have also suggested cancelling the "Spring" March, a decision criticized by Evgeny Chichvarkin, a renowned Russian entrepreneur who now lives in exile in London.
Many Russian politicians from various sides of the political spectrum have expressed their condolences at Boris Nemtsov's murder. However, some Russian politicians have suggested that Nemtsov was murdered deliberately to provoke outrage at the Russian government. One of those politicians was the Duma deputy Yaroslav Nilov, from the nationalist party LDPR, who compared Boris Nemtsov's murder to the 1933 Reichstag fire, which was started by the supporters of Adolf Hitler in order to legitimize his desire for broad emergency powers.
-- Anton Melnikov
As we reported earlier, Leonid Volkov, one of the organisers of Sunday's planned protest march, has told reporters he believes the march should be postponed.
Volkov has now said that a funeral march should be held in central Moscow instead.
Translation: 1 March - Funeral march in the centre
-- Pierre Vaux
"Under the present circumstances, I believe that the March 1 demonstration must be postponed."
-- Pierre Vaux"We need to hold some other kind of action perhaps a minutes silence in the centre of Moscow, and postpone the demonstration to some other date."
LifeNews has also posted security camera footage which reportedly shows the car, a white Ford Focus or Ford Mondeo, which was reportedly involved in the murder. Media Zone, citing Interfax, reports that the police has the plate number for the car.
In our last update below, we note that, according to Kommersant, Nemtsov's colleague Ilya Yashin says he was working on a report about Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.
It's worth noting that we have not independently corroborated that Nemtsov was walking with anyone, and if he was walking with Durickaya, we do not know how they knew each other.
-- James Miller, Anton Melnikov
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Sledcom, has published this report on the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (translated by The Interpreter):
Following the murder of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, the Head Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) in Moscow initiated criminal proceedings based on Article 105 part 1 (murder) and Article 222 (illegal possession of a weapon) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
According to preliminary data, an unknown person in a car shot Boris Nemtsov at least 7-8 times, when [Nemtsov] was walking on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky bridge. An investigative team is currently working on the scene of the crime, performing a detailed examination of the crime scene, [and] finding and interviewing witnesses of the act.
As ordered by Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the ICR, the investigation has been joined by experienced crime specialists and investigators of the ICR. They are carrying out all the necessary actions related to finding and apprehending persons connected with the murder.
Kommersant adds that according to Yelena Alekseyeva, a Sledkom spokesperson, said that the woman Nemtsov was walking with was from Ukraine. Kommersant also adds:
"According to Boris Nemtsov's close associate, Ilya Yashin, the opposition politician was perparing a report on the participation of Russian soldiers in the conflict in Ukraine."
-- Anton Melnikov, Pierre Vaux, James Miller