Pavel Sheremet: After Nemtsov’s murder disgust to the authorities and wish for changes are growing

“For now Russia is satisfied, and well-fed people are not very disposed towards any protests. However, fullness has its limit, other feelings are being added to it – everything is too obscurantist”.

Pavel Sheremet, famous journalist, a friend of the killed Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, says that Russian authorities have crossed the red line and announced war of internal opposition. At the same time, Sheremet notes, “a see of people” came to the memorial service. In the interview with the “EuroBelarus” Information Service Pavel Sheremet marks that the Russian opposition will be feeling the loss of the brightest politician for a long time, however, it will hardly go the way of atomization and marginalization as it was in Belarus after a number of key figures disappeared or died strange deaths.

- The murder of Boris Nemtsov means announcement of war. Rejecting their traditional methods of contraction – propaganda, bribery, and blackmailing, Russian authorities announced war to Russian opposition and switched to enforcement actions, to suppression. Nemtsov’s murder is revealing. It was a man who adhered to exclusively political methods of fight. He was an open politician; he didn’t conspire, didn’t call for revolutions, and has always stayed against violence and against any partisan methods of fight for power. He was a classical western politician. And it seems that the authorities are afraid of such independent personalities, using criminal methods of fight against them. This is an earlier unknown page in the newest political history of Russia.

- Was it this rage, different from the usual gloomy Russian figures that made Nemtsov the main persona of the Russian opposition?

- He wasn’t only the brightest. Boris Nemtsov embodied a whole range of traits important for the political actor. Besides, he was the most recognizable among Russian politicians (although he had high and negative rate – due to the pensioners, who believed him to destroy the Soviet Union and so on), he knew how to come to an agreement – both with the rights and with the left. Boris performed the role of a connecting link: he had good relations with the politicians of elder generation, whereas young politicians tended to follow in their footsteps. And he wasn’t afraid of Putin. He said such things that none of the modern Russian politicians could afford themselves to say. Boris was afraid of nothing – he didn’t have property abroad, he was ready to sacrifice a lot for his idea, for his beliefs. Although, as far as I know, he had a lot of offers and variants of how to organize his life abroad. But it would be boring for him to live there – he didn’t imagine himself outside Russia, he really loved his country. It was impossible to force him out of Russia, impossible to frighten him as Kasparov, for example, or put him to prison, as Khodorkovsky. The authorities had nothing they could bite him for, so it was easier for them just to kill him.

- Will Alexey Navalny be able to unite opposition?

- Navalny is a very bright and perspective politician; he is a second Boris Nemtsov, but only 20 years ago. Navalny is still lacking experience.

- Weakness of today’s Belarusan opposition is often linked to the disappearances and odd deaths at the border between 90s and the XXI century. Is the possibility of such path for Russian opposition high?

- In theory, Russian opposition might repeat the path of Belarusan opposition, though, there might be considerable differences. First, situation in Russia is radicalizing to a much bigger degree than it used to in Belarus. While Belarus was and is supported by Russia, there is no one to pay for the whims of the Russian authorities. I.e. when Russia runs out of money, Kremlin will have no one to ask for help. Secondly, the concentration of political energy, intellectual energy in Russia is much higher than in Belarus. But it might still happen… Russia is huge, but there is no one to rely on. No one has canceled the role of personality in history. And it will be hard to find and raise another Boris Nemtsov, as he went through 25 years of political struggle: first demonstrations from the times of perestroika in Gorky, then he was a governor, vice-PM, the leader of a party, the leader of opposition… Of course, there will be another bright one, but how much time should pass for that?

- The demonstration in memory of Nemtsov on March 1 attracted a lot of Russians; many also came to the funeral. Can it be that there is no “collective Putin” with 86% of support?

- Indeed, a lot of people came both to the march and to his funeral, thousands and thousands of them. When people ask how many came, I say that the exact number doesn’t mean anything, as all that can be defined as “a sea of people”. And let me note on Sunday, March 1, there were a lot of those who has never been at such kind of demonstrations before. Nemtsov’s murder shocked everyone with its meanness and impudence. And on the day of funeral there were amazingly a lot of people; the queue ran for almost a kilometer. But it’s hard to make any forecasts. Everything will depend on how quickly the situation will be developing. For now Russia is satisfied, and well-fed people are not very disposed towards any protests. However, fullness has its limit, other feelings are being added to it – everything is too obscurantist, the people who run the show in Russia are too odious. Despite the fullness, fastidiousness and desire to oppose these obscurantists comes. But how it will be developing in the future and who will lead the people is yet unclear.