Thousands of people marched in the Russian capital on February 26 to pay homage to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow two years ago.
Nemtsov, an ardent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot in the back as he walked with a female companion across a bridge near the Kremlin late on February 27, 2015.
The interior minister estimated the number of participants at 5,000, while organisers provided a threefold higher figure. But the size of the march in either case showed a steep decline on the estimated 50,000 people who turned out to remember Nemtsov at a rally a few days after his death, and 24,000 took part in a similar march last year.
However, participants' slogans echoed Nemtsov's harsh statements against Putin and Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, such as "For Russia, without Putin".
Meanwhile, it remains unclear who ordered Nemtsov's assassination. Five Chechen men are currently on trial, charged with killing Nemtsov, but they have denied the charges, and Nemtsov's relatives have expressed concerns that the actual person or people behind the murder will never be found.
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