Nemtsov, who was deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and later became an opposition politician and a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in Moscow in 2015.
In 2017, five men were sentenced to between 11 and 20 years in prison for the murder. One of them was Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
– After signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, in March 2024, Eskerkhanov was pardoned and released from the penal colony where he was serving time, reports the state news agency Tass, citing a police source.
– He joins a combat unit and carries out combat missions in the military special operation, says the source, who uses the official Russian term for the war in Ukraine.
The source says that the others who were convicted of Nemtsov’s murder are still in prison because they refused to enter into a similar contract with the military.
Nemtsov’s former spokesman, Ilya Yashin, who was recently released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia, Belarus, the US and several European countries, says the release of Eskerkhanov is “a mockery of the memory of my late friend”.
Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners have volunteered to fight in Ukraine in exchange for a pardon and a life outside prison if they survive the war.
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2024-08-14 04:21:05
