The assassination
Late on February 27, 2015, Boris Nemtsov was walking across the Bolshoy Moskvoretskiy Bridge in central Moscow, close to the Kremlin, when he was shot and killed. Nemtsov had served as a regional governor, deputy prime minister and member of parliament and later became a leading opposition politician.
The location and the victim's political prominence made the killing one of the most closely watched Russian criminal investigations of the decade. An investigation was formally opened the following day. Authorities collected scene evidence, obtained video from cameras around the area and questioned witnesses.
Arrests and disputed confession
Five suspects were arrested in March 2015. A sixth suspect died during an attempted arrest. One of the arrested men, Zaur Dadayev, initially confessed and implicated others but later retracted that statement and alleged that it had been obtained under coercive circumstances.
The criminal case proceeded against Dadayev and four co-defendants. Prosecutors presented the group as having followed Nemtsov and carried out the assassination for a promised financial reward. The defendants denied or disputed major parts of the prosecution case.
The 2017 convictions
On June 29, 2017, a Moscow jury convicted all five men. Dadayev was found guilty of firing the fatal shots. Anzor Gubashev, Shadid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev were convicted as participants or accomplices in the murder.
On July 13, 2017, the court sentenced Dadayev to 20 years in prison. Anzor Gubashev received 19 years, Shadid Gubashev 16 years, Eskerkhanov 14 years and Bakhayev 11 years. The convictions resolved who the court found criminally responsible for carrying out and assisting the killing, but they did not establish who had commissioned it.
The missing organiser
From the beginning, Nemtsov's family and lawyers argued that prosecuting the five men was not enough to solve the assassination. Russian investigators had treated another man as a suspected organiser, but the broader chain of command was never established in the completed trial.
This unresolved dimension is why the case is not classified here as fully solved. A court can convict the shooter and accomplices while leaving the person who ordered, financed or organised a contract killing unidentified.
European Court of Human Rights review
In July 2023, the European Court of Human Rights examined the adequacy of the investigation in a case brought by Nemtsov's daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova. The Court held unanimously that Russia had violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights because the investigation was ineffective.
The ECHR did not decide that a particular public official had ordered the murder. Instead, it found that Russian authorities had failed to adequately investigate who organised and commissioned the assassination, had not sufficiently explored allegations of a possible political motive and possible involvement of certain state officials, and had not established the motive of those who could have offered payment for the killing.
February 27, 2015: Boris Nemtsov is shot and killed on a bridge beside the Kremlin.
February 28, 2015: investigators formally open the murder inquiry.
March 2015: five suspects are arrested; a sixth suspect dies during an attempted arrest.
June 29, 2017: a Moscow jury finds all five defendants guilty.
July 13, 2017: sentences ranging from 11 to 20 years are imposed.
July 11, 2023: the European Court of Human Rights rules that the investigation into the assassination was inadequate and violated Article 2.
What is established — and what remains open
The 2017 verdicts establish criminal responsibility for Dadayev and the four convicted accomplices. Their convictions should not be blurred with the separate question of who commissioned the killing. The ECHR's 2023 judgment specifically identified the failure to resolve that second question as a defect in the investigation.
Claims about a political mastermind, government direction or the involvement of particular officials therefore remain allegations unless supported by a judicial finding. The case is best described as partially solved: the operational group was prosecuted, while the commissioning and full motive behind the assassination remain unresolved.
Current status
The five 2017 convictions remain the central adjudicated outcome of the murder case. No subsequent judgment identified the person who commissioned the assassination. Crime by Region therefore lists the case as Partially solved.
Sources
- European Court of Human Rights — Nemtsova v. Russia press release and principal facts, July 11, 2023
- Associated Press via KSL — June 29, 2017 jury convictions
- RFE/RL — July 13, 2017 sentencing of the five convicted men
- Associated Press via KSL — July 13, 2017 sentencing and continuing investigation of organisers
Archive context
This case is included in the Russia archive. Related Russian case files include The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, The Beslan School Siege and The Kushchyovskaya Massacre.