Last Friday, outspoken Putin critic and former deputy prime minister, Boris Nemtsov, was
gunned down in front of the Kremlin, two days before an anti-Putin rally he had organized.
The Russian President called for an end to high profile political killings.
Still, the shooting follows a disturbing pattern of Putin critics ending up dead or imprisoned.
So who are Putin’s top enemies, and what happens to them?
One of Putin’s earliest enemies, Vladimir Gusinsky, was the founder of NTV, a Russian
television network outspoken about the government.
In 2001, shortly after Putin’s ascension to the presidency, the government owned natural
gas company, Gaz-prom, seized control of the network.
Gusinsky was charged with fraud and fled to Spain while NTV was converted to a pro-Kremlin
network.
Soon after, another television mogul and Putin critic, Boris Berezovsky, also fled the country
to seek political asylum in the United Kingdom.
After two separate assassination attempts, Berezovsky was found dead in his apartment
in 2013.
A few years earlier, a former security official and close friend of Berezovsky’s, Alexander
Litvinenko, also died after being poisoned with plutonium.
On his deathbed, he accused Putin of orchestrating the poisoning.
For more on Litvinenko, see our timeline about his death.
A fourth oligarch and critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was the richest man in Russia when he debated
Putin on television in 2003, and insinuated that Russian officials were receiving millions
in bribes.
Soon afterwards, Khodorkovsky was arrested for fraud and tax evasion, along with his
business partner, Platon Lebedev.
Both were sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.
Many vocal anti-Putin protesters have been jailed for their roles in stirring dissent.
Two out of three members of the political anti-establishment band, Pussy Riot, served
two-year sentences after an anti-Putin performance in an Orthodox cathedral.
In 2012, countrywide protests broke out against voter fraud, media censorship, and the taking
of political prisoners.
Two protest organizers, were accused of terrorism and conspiracy.
They were sentenced to 4 and a half years of hard labor..
Perhaps the most disturbing trend is a string of poorly investigated murders of Russian
journalists.
The most famous of which is the assassination of a vocal anti-Putin author and journalist
Anna Politkovskaya.
In the aftermath of her death, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution urging
Putin to accept outside help in investigating 14 unsolved murders of journalists since the
start of his presidency.
Although the Russian constitution provides for freedom of press and speech, most media
is expected to self-censor and the US State Department, has reported that in recent years
the Kremlin has increased its crackdown on political dissent.
For more on Russia’s influence in the world, check out our video about how powerful they
really are.
Or this other one about their recent buildup of sneaky military activity in neighboring
countries.
If you’re watching on your phone, click the links at the top of the description to
watch!
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