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            The gangland style murder of Boris Nemtsov starkly demonstrates the considerable distance still separating Russia from stable and reliable rule of law.

           On the evening of February 27, the influential leader of opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s regime was gunned down on a Moscow street near the Kremlin. A public rally he was supposed to lead on March 1 was not cancelled, but instead transformed into a mass protest against the corruption and brutality which characterize Russia today.

            Nemtsov was a leader of the Republican Party of Russia-People’s Freedom Party, pro-democracy reforms. He had been a principal leader in transforming the Russian economy to capitalism, and a relentless critic of Putin’s government.

            Shortly before his death, he predicted Putin would have him killed. Speculation after the murder swirls in that direction, but also in others. Conspiracy theories include the possibility that Putin enemies actually carried out the hit, to weaken him. In a March 4 speech, Putin condemned the killing.

            This is the latest in a string of murders of Putin critics. Six years ago, a strikingly similar killing of two prominent young human rights advocates occurred. On January 19, 2009, on a sunny public street also near the Kremlin, activist attorney Stanislav Markelov was murdered. Journalist Anastasia Baburova was killed as well while trying to aid him.  The hit man was a practiced pro, his pistol equipped with a silencer.

            Baburova worked for “Novaya Gazeta,” an opposition newspaper. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya of that paper prominently publicized human-rights abuses in Chechnya until her murder in 2006.

            The murders of Baburova and Markelov generated widespread public condemnation. In the spring of 2011, two members of the banned extremist Russian National Union were convicted of the murders and sentenced to prison.

            An initial trial of three men accused of Politkovskaya’s murder ended in acquittal, but the Supreme Court of Russia overturned that verdict. Following further lengthy investigation and new trials, five men were convicted of the crime and in June 2014 sentenced to long prison terms.

            While Putin has not been formally implicated in these murders and others, there is broad belief that those convicted were operating under orders. Regime practices foster an atmosphere of threat and danger for dissident reporters and politicians. There has been a return to more repressive practices regarding news media, but the Internet provides an alternative.

.           Judicial due process, though uncertain, has succeeded regarding the murders of these dissidents, and justice should be pressed in the despicable murder of Boris Nemtsov. Sustained global public attention has been important.

The Putin regime is autocratic and ruthless, but cannot completely seal off Russian society. That feature of twentieth century totalitarianism is no longer possible in our time of pervasive global media – and global economic integration.

            Russia desperately needs foreign capital. Economic strength of recent years has been a function of high oil prices. Today, plummeting oil prices directly weakens Putin and associates.

            Russian aggression in Ukraine has led to economic sanctions by the European Union, the U.S. and a range of other nations. Reinforcing and expanding the impacts, Russia is now suffering from substantial, rising flight of both capital and educated professionals.

            During the height of the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration wisely promoted scientific and cultural/educational exchanges with the Soviet Union. The U.S. and our allies should give renewed emphasis to such efforts.

            History is on our side.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). He can be reached at acyr@carthage.edu