Duma refuses to launch its own probe into Nemtsov’s murder

The Russian Duma has refused to launch a parliamentary investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov, rejecting a proposal by Dmitry Gudkov, one of the few opposition lawmakers left in Russia’s legislature.

In a letter to Gudkov, Vladimir Pligin, the chairman of the Duma’s committee on constitutional legislation and state infrastructure, argued that the law governing parliamentary investigations doesn’t apply to inquiries where “the aim is to establish the guilt of specific individuals.”

Update: Duma officials say they've not officially rejected a probe into Nemtsov's murder, insofar as the legislature cannot even consider such an investigation until at least 90 deputies have joined a request.

“Without belittling the importance of finding Boris Nemtsov’s murderers or the need to bring the guilty parties to justice, it should be noted that the investigation of criminal offenses is the duty of the investigative agencies,” Pligin answered.

TASS

• According to the law Pligin cites, parliamentary inquiries can only address gross or mass violations of constitutional rights or human rights. In the past, for example, the Duma investigated the 2004 Beslan school siege, which resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people.
• Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot to his death on February 27 in the center of Moscow, not far from the Kremlin. Nemtsov was 55-years-old. Police have arrested five individuals for Nemtsov’s murder—all men from the Russian North Caucasus.
• According to Vadim Prokhorov, one of the Nemtsov family’s attorneys, investigators have encountered unusual difficulties in Chechnya, where police have had problems locating, interrogating, and apprehending suspects involved in the murder case. Prokhorov says investigators haven’t even been able to locate one person wanted for questioning, Federation Council member Sulieman Geremeyev.
• On May 15, Russian police appointed a new lead investigator to Nemtsov's murder case, promoting Nikolai Tutevich, who in the past investigated the killing of a Chechen police battalion commander.