LaRouche: Murder of Opposition
Figure Nemtsov ‘Smells Like Nuland’
by Dennis Small
March 2—Former Russian “young reformer,” and recent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov was shot dead Feb. 27 as he walked across the Bolshoy Zamoskvoretsky Bridge, adjacent to Red Square in Moscow. Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said that Nemtsov was hit numerous times by shots fired by a gunman or gunmen who escaped by car; he died at the scene before emergency medical services arrived. Markin also stated that “the investigation is looking at several versions” as to who was responsible.
Western press headlines immediately declared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s responsibility for the assassination. Presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said: “Vladimir Putin noted that this cruel murder has all the signs of being a contract killing, and is absolutely provocational in nature.”
In fact, Putin had warned explicitly against precisely this kind of scenario, as far back as February 2012, when he noted that there were forces which “really want some kind of clashes; they are pushing for that, and are even prepared to sacrifice somebody and blame the authorities.... They are even looking for a so-called sacrificial lamb, somebody famous. They would off him—excuse me for the expression—and then blame the authorities.”
Lyndon LaRouche put a name on the operation, in remarks on Feb. 27:
“The idea that he [Nemtsov] was assassinated by Putin, in Putin’s interest, is crazy.... Who would have the motive to have shot this guy, in Russia? Victoria Nuland.” LaRouche added that the question must be asked whether or not Nuland “was part of the team that organized the assassination of this guy. It sounds like Nuland. To me, it smells like Nuland.... She’s on the list of the suspected criminals, for this case, as for other cases.”
Nuland, who is Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, is widely recognized as the architect of the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine, as well as the sponsor of the neo-Nazi organizations which led that coup. Just this past week, Nuland met in Washington with Andriy Parubiy, the leader of the fascist militias during the Euromaidan coup, and who is now the deputy speaker of the Ukraine Supreme Rada (Parliament). Nuland and Parubiy are pushing the U.S. to send lethal weapons to the Kiev government, which would throw oil on the fire in the region and likely unleash a broader conflict with Russia (see International).
As LaRouche and his associates have thoroughly documented, Nuland, Obama, and their British sponsors are hell-bent on bringing a “Maidan revolution” to Russia as well, orchestrating regime change to topple the Putin government; they have even activated a policy of threatened tactical nuclear warfare against Russia and China to force them to submit to the crumbling trans-Atlantic financial empire. That submission will not happen, however, as the Russian leadership has repeatedly made clear.
Murder and Mayhem Against the BRICS
More broadly, Obama and the British are frantic to stop the emerging alternative to their bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system, which is taking shape around the newly established “new paradigm” of global development established by the BRICS nations, under the leadership of China and Russia. That BRICS process now includes Argentina, Egypt, and increasingly, Greece. Obama and his City of London/Wall Street sponsors have repeatedly deployed murders and terrorist acts to target these nations, along with military and financial warfare aimed at regime change.
For example, take Argentina, where President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a collaborator of the BRICS, is being threatened with regime change, orchestrated by the New York and London vulture funds. There, federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman was “suicided” on Jan. 18, the day before he was to announce the release of a dossier supposedly proving Fernández’s guilt in covering up for Iran in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The President was immediately identified as the architect of Nisman’s death, in much of the international media. But on Feb. 26, the judge overseeing the bombing case, after reviewing Nisman’s so-called “evidence,” threw the case out and declared that “there is not a single element of evidence, not even circumstantial, which implicates the current head of State.”
In BRICS member Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff is also the target of destabilization and financial warfare, revolving around charges of corruption of the state oil company Petrobras. A national mobilization in defense of Brazil and in opposition to that operation has been launched, with leaders such as former Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral charging that “the coup is already underway.” Here, too, there are threats of violence and mayhem. Brazil’s Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo, on Feb. 25, reportedly warned Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot Monteiro de Barros, who is running a high-profile corruption investigation against the state oil company Petrobras and President Rousseff—an investigation praised and promoted by Wall Street et al.—that his ministry had information which led them to warn Janot to take security measures.
In South Africa, one of the five BRICS nations, agitation from the British-linked left opposition around corruption accusations, is putting forward the demand for President Jacob Zuma to be removed.
Another recent case of unfounded charges being leveled against Putin and the Russian government, was that of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Obama and London immediately blamed Putin, with no evidence whatsoever. In fact, the U.S. has refused to release satellite or AWAC surveillance videos of the incident, or other relevant evidence. This charge was used to browbeat a reluctant Europe into joining in sanctions and related financial warfare against Russia, and to escalate the military confrontation.
A British ‘Sacrificial Lamb’
Now, the timely murder of Nemtsov indicates that Obama and the British are moving to escalate the confrontation with Russia, even up to the threshold of thermonuclear war. One of the more outrageously provocative lines being circulated in an effort to trigger a “color revolution” in Russia, is that the murder of Nemtsov is like the notorious 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov.
The London Economist led the way with a Feb. 28 article headlined, “Boris Nemtsov, Liberal martyr,” with the opening line, “Russia’s rising political hatred claims a victim: a scrupulously honest reformist leader.” The article argues:
“As Mikhail Iampolski, a Russian cultural historian, wrote on his Facebook page, ‘one cannot exclude the possibility that the execution of Nemtsov could become for Russia something like the murder of Kirov.’ The reference is to Sergei Kirov, a charismatic Bolshevik leader who was assassinated in 1934 inside Leningrad’s City Hall. Stalin used Kirov’s murder as an excuse to unleash a period of terror and purges.”
But there is also widespread recognition, both inside Russia and abroad, of the provocative nature of the Nemtsov murder. China’s Global Times published an editorial March 2 warning of the dire consequences for Russia and the world if Russia is destabilized and divided. The editors dismiss the argument that Putin was behind the murder, emphasizing that assassinating an opposition figure “is especially senseless because the outrage triggered by such an act can only enhance cohesion of the opposition, rather than weakening it.” They conclude that Russia is at a difficult juncture, and that the “US-led West wants to add burdens to it, making the Putin government and Russian society face severe tests.”
Paul Craig Roberts, the former Reagan Administration Treasury official, who is currently in Russia, is warning that Obama’s provocations against Moscow are driving the world towards nuclear war. Roberts wrote Feb. 28 in his blog, “As if on cue, the murder yesterday of Boris Nemtsov, a Washington-funded Russian ‘opposition politician’ with a tiny following, has become a major news item for the American presstitute media. The presstitutes have responded as if orchestrated by a conductor with insinuations of Putin’s responsibility and the death of democracy in Russia.” He quotes analyst Stephen Lendman saying, “Expect no evidence whatever surfacing suggesting Putin’s involvement. Nemtsov’s martyrdom is much more valuable to Washington than using him alive as an impotent opposition figure.”
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachov stated,
“The assassination of Boris Nemtsov is an attempt to complicate the situation in the country, even to destabilize it by ratcheting up tensions between the government and the opposition. Just who did this is hard to say; let’s not jump to any conclusions right now and give the investigators time to sort this all out.”
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov noted: “With all due respect to the memory of Boris Nemtsov, he was no political threat to the current leadership of Russia or Vladimir Putin. Compared with the popularity of Putin, or the government as a whole, Boris Nemtsov’s was hardly greater than that of the average citizen.”
Putin Speaks
But perhaps the clearest warning came from Putin himself, over three years ago, in a speech at a political rally. EIR reported at the time:
“Russian Prime Minister and Presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has continued a busy schedule of activity throughout this week’s run-up to Sunday’s vote, including stern statements about the strategic situation, in an interview with foreign editors, and a warning on Feb. 29 against possible drastic provocations around the election.
“During a Feb. 29 campaign meeting with leaders of the Russian National Front, Putin responded to a question by a professor from the North Caucasus about the presence of provocateurs among those attending mass rallies. He said, ‘Concerning provocations at rallies, and so forth, I have talked about this. I hope nobody will go that far, and things will remain within what is allowed under the Constitution, so that provocations against law enforcement won’t achieve their goal. The people you mentioned really want some kind of clashes; they are pushing for that, and are even prepared to sacrifice somebody and blame the authorities. I know this method and these tactics. For a decade there have been attempts to use them, especially abroad. This is true, and I know about it. They are even looking for a so-called sacrificial lamb, somebody famous. They would off him—excuse me for the expression—and then blame the authorities. People over there are capable of anything. I’m not exaggerating. I hope that those who sincerely want to see improvements in the situation in the country and are exercising their right to criticize and demonstrate, will not fall for this, but everybody should be aware of it.’ ”
