Kremlin critic wanted to dish the dirt

Moscow

HOLDING placards declaring "I am not afraid", thousands of Russians marched in Moscow on Sunday in memory of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, whose murder has widened a split in society that some say could threaten Russia's future.

Families, the old and young walked slowly, with many carrying portraits of Mr Nemtsov, an opposition politician and former deputy prime minister who was shot dead while walking home from a restaurant in central Moscow on Friday night. "If we can stop the campaign of hate that's being directed at the opposition, then we have a chance to change Russia. If not, then we face the prospect of mass civil conflict," Gennady Gudkov, an opposition leader, told Reuters before the march. "The authorities are corrupt and don't allow any threats to them to emerge. Boris was uncomfortable for them." His murder has prompted deep soul-searching in a country where for years after the Soviet Union collapsed many yearned for the stability later brought by President Vladimir Putin. Some now fear his rule has become an autocracy. Mr Putin has vowed to pursue those who killed Mr Nemtsov, calling the murder a "provocation".