SNIP
This means the murder of Boris Nemtsov was either ordered or allowed to happen: which come to exactly the same thing. That he could be killed like this has shaken the oligarchs and the officers of the Russian elite to their core. Boris Nemtsov was once Russia’s deputy prime minister and a protégé of Boris Yeltsin. He was almost picked as a successor instead of Putin. His murder means that the Putin’s solemn – and public – promise not to touch Yeltsin and his allies has been torn up.
This means the old Moscow rulebook has been torn up, too. Ever since fall of Khrushchev power in Moscow has changed hands without executions. Once ousted, old ruling cliques were allowed to live their lives out in irrelevance. Ripping this up works perfectly for Putin. Those contemplating, even in the abstract, a coup know they could be executed for it – and those loyal to Putin now believe that they must fight to keep him in power as they could be executed in revenge should he fall. Vladimir Putin now has the elite exactly where he wants them: terrified.
I noticed the reference to investigating the apartment bombing that brought Putin to power. At the time I thought it was very suspicious and politically useful. If the old Moscow rulebook as been torn up, then perhaps Putin will need to watch his back more than before. With all these frightened, very rich oligarchs, what is to prevent someone from hiring assassins for a multi-million dollar hit. There must be someone out there with terminal cancer who would like to leave a fortune to family and wouldn’t mind a quick cyanide pill death if caught. If not planned by Putin, this could have been like the murder in Britain of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The story is that King Henry II said something like, “Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome priest,” which 4 of his nobles took as an order and acted upon. Becket was trying to prevent the King from taxing church lands or some such thing.