Guilty Until Proven Innocent

"Everyone who knows Zaur [Dadaev] confirms that he is a deeply religious person who, like all Muslims, was shocked by the actions of Charlie [Hebdo] and comments [of those] who supported the publication of the caricatures."
"[If found guilty of murdering Mr. Nemtsov it would represent a] grave crime [but Dadaev] could not have taken a step against Russia, for which he risked his own life for many years."
Ramzan Kadyrov, leader, Chechnya

Pictures and flowers at a murder scene of politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Moscow's Moskvoretsky bridge of February 28, 2015.    (RIA Novosti / Ramil Sitdikov)

"The attempt to convince the public that Nemtsov was an obvious target for Islamic radicals doesn't stand up to criticism."
"He was absolutely tolerant in terms of religion. Of course, he criticized terrorists who killed the Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris. But many public figures were louder and tougher in their criticisms."
"This version is extremely convenient for [President] Vladimir Putin, because it takes both him and his inner circle out of the line of fire."
"It is a clear signal to those in the security services: 'Kadyrov is my guy, don't you dare touch him. It's clearly a kind of political protection [official award], a political roof over Kadyrov's head."
Ilya Yashin, opposition activist

Just as well with Moscow teeming with skeptics, that Vladimir Putin assured Russians that he would himself personally look after the investigation into the assassination of former Yeltsin-era vice-president Boris Nemtsov. Even while acknowledging the man was a pain in the neck to their president, they must know that their president is humble enough and stalwart enough to take on the task of finding whoever was responsible for the untimely death of a man who, acting like a gnat, thought of himself as an eagle.

Toppled from his righteous nest of holding the Kremlin to account for its corruption, and President Putin for his contempt for democracy and the international rule of law, threatening to expose Mr. Putin's role in Ukraine, he met a just end, but because President Putin is such a sensitively just man, he would go out of his way to see that justice is done. Not on his watch will a critic, however, irritating, fall victim to Islamist scum who see their way clear to shooting a man in the back ambling along with his sweetheart a stone's throw from the Kremlin.

Despite that Mr. Nemtsov had thrown one stone too metaphorically often at the Kremlin, no one had the right to deprive the man of his life, and Mr. Putin would not stand for it. And it is most ungracious of gnats like Vladimir Milov, another opposition activist to claim that "The 'Chechen trail' appears to be more of a coverup operation, and a clumsily executed one at that", despite which the man will go on to live a long and unprosperous life.

Champions of Moscow, on the other hand, receive their just due. Which is why Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was awarded the Order of Honour by the Kremlin on Monday. A timing coincidence, explained one of Mr. Putin's underlings. And, as a special hands-out, single-hand clap to Great Britain, yet another medal honouring Andrei Lugovoi whom British police have wrongly accused of poisoning former security services agent Alexander Litvinenko, in 2006.

Mr. Kadyrov had more to say, as well, lauding Beslan Shavanov as a "brave warrior" though he was a suspect in the case. The Russian military, in pursuing him as well, to solve the Nemtsov murder lost the suspect. Mr. Shavanov, cornered in his apartment in Grozny, had miscalculated the curve of a grenade, enabling it to explode too close to himself, and perished ... as a "brave warrior", puzzlingly.

"I am one hundred percent sure that suspicions that my nephew [participated in] the murder of Nemtsov have no basis", impudently claimed his uncle, Movsud Tovkhagov of a man employed by the Chechnya Interior Ministry.