Exclusive: Boris Nemtsov’s Mother Shares Memories, 10 Years After His Killing
Boris Nemtsov as an infant with his mother, Dina
The family of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader gunned down in Moscow 10 years ago, has shared with Current Time an intimate video in which his mother shares memories of her son.
The video was recorded by Nemtsov’s daughter, Zhanna, in 2023, in the final months of his mother’s life. It provides a unique insight into a man who rose close to the summit of Russian politics under Boris Yeltsin, before becoming a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin.
“The teachers at school loved him. The girls called him ‘the important one,’” Dina Nemtsova says in the video. She herself died aged 96 in February 2024.
She paints a picture of a talented boy who rose from humble beginnings.
“It was very hard for him to work at home. He had a small place in the kitchen, but someone would always interrupt his work. Sometimes, when he needed to find space to work, he would lock himself in the bathroom.”
Then 87 years of age, Boris Nemtsov's mother, Dina, attends her son's funeral in Moscow in March 2015.
Nemtsov was raised in Gorky, which was renamed Nizhny Novogorod after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and studied physics at the city’s university.
“He was critical about what was happening in the country,” Dina says. “It was during [Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev's time when Boris was already aware that things were happening.”
But it was under a later Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, that Nemtsov became politically active. Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) changed the political climate in the country, making it easier to speak out.
Political Awakening
“We started following politics when perestroika started. I can say it was that moment when he entered politics.”
Nemtsov had a successful career in the chaotic conditions of 1990s post-Soviet Russia, eventually rising to be deputy prime minister under Yeltsin.
Boris Nemtsov: A Life And Death In Pictures
1/22Boris Nemtsov studied physics at Lobachevsky State University in Gorky, the city now known as Nizhny Novgorod, receiving a degree in 1981.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
2/22Nemtsov holds a meeting with local voters as governor of Nizhny Novgorod in 1992.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
3/22Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin and Nemtsov at a tennis event in Nizhny Novgorod in 1994.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
4/22Nemtsov prepares for a flight in a MiG-29 fighter jet produced in Nizhny Novgorod in 1996.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
5/22Nemtsov with his daughter Zhanna in 1996.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
6/22Nemtsov speaks during his first 100 days in office as deputy prime minister in 1997.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
7/22Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov with Nemtsov at a roundtable discussion in Moscow in 1997.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
8/22Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Nemtsov visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
9/22Nemtsov, as deputy prime minister, vists the Oktyabrskaya-Yuzhnaya coal mine in 1998.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
10/22Nemtsov became leader of the Union of Right Forces party. Here he is seen with an effigy of himself from the political satire show, Puppets, in 1999.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
11/22Nemtsov, then a member of the Russian legislature, the State Duma, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in 2000.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
12/22Nemtsov talks to Yulia Tymoshenko at the inauguration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in 2005. She is also standing next to businessman Petro Poroshenko, who became president of Ukraine.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
13/22Nemtsov confronts police during an opposition march in Moscow in 2010.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
14/22Police detain Nemtsov as he speaks at an opposition march in Moscow in 2011.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
15/22Police encricle Nemtsov as he speaks at an anti-Putin rally in Moscow in 2011 -- the second mass protest in the Russian capital in as many days -- demanding fresh elections after alleged electoral fraud.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
16/22Nemtsov attends an opposition rally for fair parliamentary elections after alleged electoral fraud in 2011.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
17/22Nemtsov and opposition politician, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, invalidate their ballots for 2011 parliamentary elections, writing: "Bring back honest elections, bastards!"
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
18/22Nemtsov holds a one-man protest demanding that authorities investigate the beating of journalist and commentator Oleg Kashin in 2011.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
19/22Nemtsov is seen in his apartment in Yaroslavl in 2013.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
20/22Nemtsov attends a 2014 rally in Yaroslavl against the abolition of direct elections for the office of mayor.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
21/22Nemtsov hands out leaflets inviting people to come to an opposition rally in Moscow in February 2015.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
22/22Late on the night of February 27, 2015, Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin.
Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the night of February 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was 55 years old. A liberal politician who became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponents, Nemtsov became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Russia.
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But when Yeltsin appointed Putin as his successor, Nemtsov became a regular face at street protests against the Kremlin’s new, authoritarian turn.
“Putin is a KGB man full of Soviet manners,” he said in one interview.
Nemtsov was a major figure who gave Russia’s increasingly beleaguered opposition a face with global recognition and respect. In Western capitals, he was associated with the brief promise of a new, democratic Russia after decades of communism.
When he was gunned down in 2015, it was widely seen as a political assassination. Five Chechens were convicted for a contract killing, but Russian law enforcement never prosecuted anyone for ordering it.
In 2016, his mother wrote that she had last seen him in December 2014.
“He looked thin and distracted….” she said. “It just never occurred to me that everything was so dangerous.”
Ray Furlong is a Senior International Correspondent for RFE/RL. He has reported for RFE/RL from the Balkans, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and elsewhere since joining the company in 2014. He previously worked for 17 years for the BBC as a foreign correspondent in Prague and Berlin, and as a roving international reporter across Europe and the former Soviet Union.
