Putin doesn’t care about Russia’s future: Zhanna Nemtsova

2016/3/14 17:34:11

<Photo: Zhanna Nemtsova, daughter of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, during an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, November 25, 2015. On the anniversary of her father's death, she went to London to present a foundation in his name to support the ideals of European-minded Russians.

 


By Damien Sharkov for Newsweek, Mar 12, 2016

 

A year after her father, the great figurehead of Russia’s opposition, was gunned down in front the Kremlin, Zhanna Nemtsova is carrying on his legacy.

 

Speaking in London on Monday on the anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination, Nemtsova shared the podium with some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most famous critics, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil baron who spent a decade in jail for what many say were trumped up charges of fraud.

 

They had come together to present the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, an organization promoting democracy and education about the Russian political system. Set up by Nemtsova a few months ago, the foundation had assembled most of its advisory board in London to mark a year since the death of the man whose ideals brought them together.

 

Dressed in black, Nemtsova spoke solemnly to a handful of reporters and attendees at Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia club. She thanked her father’s supporters for helping her during “a very difficult year for our family and for us all,” before letting Khodorkovsky and other members of her new foundation pay their respects to the late politician and discuss their ideas about the future of democracy in Russia.

 

After the event, Nemtsova spoke with Newsweek about her father, whom she called “a Russian patriot but also a very Europe-minded person.” She can’t say as much about the man in charge of Russia at the moment. In her eyes, Putin’s priority is removing threats to his own rule, not to Russia itself.

 

“Putin thinks about his political longevity as president and doesn't really care about Russia's future,” Nemtsova says. Instead, the Kremlin’s cruel treatment of anti-corruption, pro-democracy and human rights activists is causing a “brain drain”, driving more and more freethinking Russians out of the country. This, Nemtsova says, is not a strategy that can better Russia’s future but is merely a “way out for Putin to secure his presidency for longer.

 

“His logic is understandable. He has no support among people who value freedom and are not victims of propaganda,” she says.

 

For complete text of the article, link below:

http://europe.newsweek.com/putin-care ... oris-nemtsov-434668?rm=eu

 

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