Governor to Vice Premier: the meteoric rise of the young Nemtsov
A physicist by training, Boris Nemtsov began his political career shortly before the fall of the USSR. He became known in Sochi, his hometown, where he successfully opposed the construction of a nuclear power after the Chernobyl disaster. In 1990, the young thirty elected to the Soviet Parliament. For him it is the beginning of a meteoric rise. After gouverneneur Oblast Nizhny Novgorod, he was noted under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, in which he played the younger generation of reformers in a post-Soviet Russia, under reconstruction. In 1997, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the energy sector and monopolies, a key post, but particularly delicate. '' It is certain that I will be a number of enemies among the industrial and financial oligarchy which in many respects controls the situation in Russia. My function in Moscow today is that of a Kamikaze, '' he said then in an interview on television. Very close to President Yeltsin, who had envisioned a time to make his prime minister, Boris Nemtsov was finally rejected in favor of the head of the FSB, Vladimir Putin. Victim of the economic crisis and a corruption scandal, he was finally sacked in 1998.
Excerpt from a memorable televised debate between Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1995)
The circles of power to the opposition: a difficult conversion
In 1999, Boris Nemtsov was elected to the State Duma under the SPS tag, the Union of Right Forces, an opposition party he co-founded. Then begins his fight against the policy of Vladimir Putin, who in March 2000 became the new president of the Russian Federation, after the surprise resignation of Boris Yeltsin.
Marginalized, Boris Nemtsov hardly exist against the powerful United Russia party wins including, hands down, the parliamentary elections of 2007, '' the most corrupt in the history of Russia, '' according Nemtsov. After failing to run for president, he founded in 2008 the Solidarnost movement, alongside the former chess champion Garry Kasparov. It also brings another opponent, Alexei Navalny blogger.
Winter 2011: Nemtsov became one of the figures of the anti-Putin protest
During the winter of 2011, Boris Nemtsov is one of the leading figures of the anti-Putin protest movement. Unprecedented protests in Moscow and other Russian cities to oppose the third presidential term of Vladimir Putin and denounce its control and that of his party in the country. Arrested in late 2010 for participating in an unauthorized demonstration, he will spend two weeks in detention. '' Why should I leave this country? I love Russia. Let the thieves and criminals from '', he then launched his release.
The destroyer of corruption
The fight against corruption is another workhorse of Boris Nemtsov. In a report on the Sochi Olympics, he denounced the diversion of billions of euros of public funds for the benefit of close to the Kremlin leader, including President of Russian Railways, accused of having built near Moscow a luxurious property with the proceeds of such diversions. In another report, he was also taken to the lifestyle of Vladimir Putin he compared to that of a 'Persian prince.' '
His fight for a free Ukraine
In 2004, Boris Nemtsov visits Ukraine to support the Orange Revolution and campaigns, with the reformer Viktor Yushchenko, for the emancipation of Ukraine. The following year, he told Russian journalists: '' I can say with confidence that within five years, the Ukrainian people will live better than in Russia (...) and without gas or oil. In about seven years (in 2012), Ukraine will enter the European Union, and all the Ukrainians will have a Schengen passport. And we, the Russians, we envierons'. More recently, he condemned the Kremlin's policy in Ukraine and had to participate on Sunday, two days before his death, a large opposition rally in Moscow. Boris Nemtsov had just completed a short film available on the Internet in which he claimed to prove the Russian involvement in Ukraine.
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