Boris Nemtsov Shot to Death in Moscow
BERMAN: Tonight, other breaking news. Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, one of President Putin's most vocal critics has been shot dead in central Moscow, gunned down on a bridge near the Kremlin. His associates are calling it a political murder. Russian television said President Putin has condemned the killing. In a statement a short time ago, President Obama called it a brutal murder and urged Russia's government to conduct a prompt and transparent investigation. President Obama praised Nemtsov as a tireless and courageous advocate for his country. Now, in an interview last year, CNN's Anthony Bourdain spoke frankly with Nemtsov about the dangers that Putin's critics faced. Look at this.</s>ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were supposed to be dining at another restaurant this evening and when they heard that you would be joining me, we were uninvited. Should I be concerned about having dinner with you?</s>BORIS NEMTSOV: This is a country of corruption. And if you have business, you are in a very unsafe situation. Everybody can press you and destroy your business. That's it - this is the system.</s>BOURDAIN (voice over): Meet Boris Nemtsov. He was deputy prime minister under Yeltsin. (on camera): Critics of the government, critics of Putin, bad things seem to happen to them.</s>NEMTSOV: Yes, unfortunately, existing power represent what I say Russia of 19th century. Not of 21st.</s>BERMAN: Boris Nemtsov was 55 years old. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins me now from Moscow. Fred, what are authorities there saying about this incident?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, John, because we've just gotten some new information, literally, just a couple of minutes ago. The authorities, of course, are saying that all this happened in the very late evening hours. And the interesting thing was that Boris Nemtsov was walking directly in the vicinity of the Kremlin and there was a second person who was with him. A woman from Ukraine. And she then later spoke to another opposition figure who just spoke to us and he said that she told him that they had been walking along a bridge near the Kremlin that all of a sudden, a car stopped next to the two. A man jumped out, opened fire at Nemtsov. Very targeted, very direct. Then jumped back into his car and sped away. The Russian authorities are saying that they've started a manhunt for this person. They say they're searching for someone who apparently fled in a white car. And I can tell you from Moscow tonight that there are checkpoints here by the police where the white cars are actually being stopped quite a bit here in the city. So the Russians are saying that they've got this manhunt under way and Vladimir Putin came out and said that even he believes that this bears all the hallmarks of a targeted contract killing which he believes is meant to so provocation job.</s>BERMAN: Targeted contract killing certainly does not sound random. And Fred, Nemtsov, not just an opposition leader. This man is a former deputy prime minister. A high level official in the Russian government, well known across the country and he was just assassinated essentially.</s>PLEITGEN: Absolutely. He wasn't only a high-level Russian politician, but he was also someone who after he left active politics, became an opposition figure and was very much a critic of Vladimir Putin. He's been jailed several times since 2007. The latest was in 2011. He was a very big critic of Vladimir Putin, also around the Olympics in Sochi where he said that money was wasted where he said that there was corruption, but most importantly, he was also very much an outspoken critic of what's going on in eastern Ukraine. He is someone who criticized the Russian government for that. He is someone who said in an interview just recently that he fears for his life and he fears that Vladimir Putin was after him. Now, of course, at this point in time, there's absolutely no clue as to who might be behind this, as to what might have happened but there are certainly opposition figures out there who've already said they have no faith in any sort of investigation going forward, John.</s>BERMAN: Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much for being with us from Moscow. I appreciate it. For more perspective, I want to bring in Julia Ioffe, the contributing writer for "The New York Times" magazine. She's written extensively about Russia. And Julie, you know, as we keep on saying, we do not know yet what happened. There is an investigation led by the Russian government now under way. So we don't know for sure, but it is true to say this. That opposition, people who oppose Russian president Vladimir Putin, some have ended up dead or in prison. It is not a safe position to be in, correct?</s>JULIA IOFFE, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: That's right. Boris Nemtsov, though, even though he said that he was afraid for his life, he did walk around without bodyguards. It was a very overt message of bravery. And what we've seen in return is a very overt message of fear. And as Fred pointed out very correctly, the people in the opposition will not believe really anything that comes out of the Kremlin in terms of who did this. They perceive this as a message sent directly to them. And when you see the image of Boris Nemtsov's body lying with the Kremlin as a backdrop, they understand that that is a message directed to them. That if you speak out against Putin, this could happen to you. And what's really critical here is this has never happened before. You know, about a year and a half ago, one of the other opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny, was sentenced to five years in jail. That sentence was quickly overturned, but that was a huge watershed moment. That was a landmark moment. The state had never done that before, had never really given such long sentences to the opposition. And that was seen to be like, OK, now the stakes are raised. This is something totally different.</s>BERMAN: Jail and now murder.</s>IOFFE: Yes.</s>BERMAN: But again, we don't know who did it for sure. The timing. Let's talk about the timing here. Do you think it's suspicious?</s>IOFFE: Extremely suspicious and again, this is I think why the members of the opposition that I've spoken to tonight see it as a message to them. This happened about 36 hours before a planned opposition march, planned long ago for Sunday that was to take place in Moscow to protest against the economic crisis unfolding in Russia, against the government's policy in Ukraine, and Boris Nemtsov had just come from a radio interview where he was putting out the call to Muscovites to come out on Sunday. And then he was gunned down just a couple of hours later.</s>BERMAN: Where are the Russian people here in this? If the opposition leaders are being gunned down, in a country like the U.S. or others, you would think there would be mass outrage at such an action. Do you expect people to take to the streets over the next few days?</s>IOFFE: You know, if this happened randomly without the previous 15 years of Putin's rule leading up to this, the control of television, of sweeping clear the political field of any possible competition or any opposing voices, then maybe there would be mass outrage, but this is coming on the heels of 15 years of very studied neutralizing and marginalizing the opposition. Now, this is a message that says not only will you be marginalized and silenced, something far worse could happen to you and I don't think that - I mean maybe the march on Sunday will be more populous than it would have otherwise been, but don't expect a huge uprising with pitch forks and, you know, and flames.</s>BERMAN: Julia Ioffe, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Just ahead for us, an American blogger is brutally murdered in Bangladesh. An Islamic extremist group claims responsibility. Echoes of Paris, when "360" continues.