WASHINGTON -- British and U.S. officials on June 30 urged Russian authorities to ensure that all people involved in organizing or ordering the murder of vocal Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov are brought to justice.
A Moscow court on June 29 convicted five Chechen men of the 2015 killing of Nemtsov, although his relatives criticized authorities for not identifying the real masterminds of the murder.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it welcomed the convictions but called "once more on the Russian government to ensure that all involved in the killing of Boris Nemtsov, including anyone involved in organizing or ordering the crime, are brought to justice."
A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said it "supports Boris Nemtsov’s family in their call for a fuller investigation into who ordered his murder."
"Responsibility for his murder goes further than those already convicted, and we call on the Russian government to bring the perpetrators to account," the spokesman said.
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was a critic of Putin and of Kremlin-installed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
He was shot in the back while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015.
"They still haven't found any of the persons who ordered the attack or any of the organizers," Vadim Prokhorov, a lawyer representing the Nemtsov family, said after the verdict.
"This is a complete fiasco, of course," Prokhorov said. "It is completely obvious that the government did not have any intention over these past two years to find real organizers and instigators.”
