Boris Nemtsov
Encyclopedia
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...

 and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

.

Early life

Boris Nemtsov was born on 9 October 1959 in Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...

 to Jewish parents, Efim Davidovich Nemtsov and Dina Yakovlevna Eidman. In his autobiography, Nemtsov recounts that his Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

 grandmother had him baptized as an infant, something Nemtsov, now a practicing Orthodox Christian, found out many years later. From 1976 to 1981 he studied physics at Gorky State University, and in 1985 received a Ph. D. in Physics and Mathematics, defending his dissertation at the age of 25. Until 1990 Boris Nemtsov worked as a senior scientist at the Gorky Radio-Physics Research Institute (Горьковский научно-иссследовательский радиофизический институт, НИРФИ).
In 1986, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

, Nemtsov organized a protest movement in his hometown, which effectively prevented the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the region.

Political career

In 1989, Nemtsov decided to run for the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies. He ran on a platform of reform, which for the time was quite radical; promoting ideas such as multi-party democracy and private enterprise. He was unsuccessful in this election, but returned to run for the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic representing Gorky (later renamed Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

) in 1990. This time around Nemtsov defeated the twelve other candidates in the election, most of whom were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

 nomenklatura
Nomenklatura
The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...

 (Chinayeva 1996, 36). In Parliament he joined the "Reform Coalition" and "Centre-Left" political groups.

In the Russian parliament, Nemtsov was on the legislative committee, working on agricultural reform and the liberalization of foreign trade. It was in this position that Nemtsov came to meet Boris Yeltsin, who was impressed with the young man’s work (Chinayeva 1996, 36). During the 1991 attack on the government by those opposed to Yeltsin, Nemtsov was a vehement supporter of the president, and stood by him during the entire clash. After the events of October 1991, Nemtsov’s loyalty was rewarded with the position of presidential representative in his home region of Nizhinii Novgorod (Chinayeva 1996, 36).

In November 1991 Nemtsov was appointed Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. He was re-elected in that position by popular vote in December 1995. His tenure was marked by the implementation of a wide-ranging, chaotic free market reform programme which earned the nickname "Laboratory of Reform" for Nihzhny Novgorod and resulted in significant economic growth for the region. Nemtsov's reforms won praise from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

, who visited Nizhny Novgorod in 1993 (Chinayeva 1996, 37).

In December 1993 Nemtsov was elected to the Federation Council
Federation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia ) is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , according to the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation...

, the upper house of the Russian Parliament. During the election campaign he was backed by "Russia's Choice" and "Yabloko
Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (Russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко» Rossiyskaya obyedinyonnaya demokraticheskaya partiya "Yabloko"; is a Russian social...

", which were then the principal liberal parties in the country.

In March 1997 Nemtsov was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, with special responsibility for reform of the energy sector. He was widely popular with the public and appeared to be the lead candidate to become President of Russia in 2000. In the summer of 1997, opinion polls gave Mr Nemtsov over 50% support as a potential presidential candidate. His political career, however, suffered a blow in August 1998 following the crash of the Russian stock-market and the ensuing economic crisis. As a part of Chubais' economic team, Nemtsov was forced to resign his position of Deputy Prime Minister (Yeltsin 2000, 99). After the dismissal of Prime Minister Chernomyrdin in 1998, Nemtsov was reappointed by Yeltsin to his post of Deputy Prime Minister, but again resigned shortly after when Yeltsin dissolved the government (Radio Free Europe.org).

In August 1999 Nemtsov became one of the co-founders of the Union of Right Forces
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...

, a new liberal-democratic coalition which received nearly 6 million votes, or 8.6%, in the parliamentary elections in December 1999. Nemtsov himself was elected to the State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...

, or lower house of Parliament, and consequently became its Deputy Speaker in February 2000. In May 2000, after the resignation of previous party leader Sergei Kiriyenko
Sergei Kiriyenko
Sergey Vladilenovich Kiriyenko is a Russian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Russia from 23 March to 23 August 1998 under President Boris Yeltsin...

, Nemtsov was elected leader of the Union of Right Forces and its parliamentary group in the State Duma. His position as party leader was confirmed at the Union of Right Forces congress in May 2001, where he was backed by over 70% of delegates. In 2002 he took part in the negotiations with the hostage-takers during the Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...

.

Between 2000 and 2003 Nemtsov was in a difficult political position. While he vehemently opposed what he believed to be President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

's policies of rolling back democracy and civic freedoms in Russia, he had to collaborate with the powerful co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces, Anatoly Chubais
Anatoly Chubais
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais is a Russian politician and business manager who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration. From 1998 to 2008 he was the head of the state owned electrical power monopoly RAO UES. The 2004 survey by...

, who favoured a more conciliatory line towards the Kremlin. As a consequence, the Union of Right Forces's message appeared muddled and confused, thus alienating many liberal voters. In the parliamentary elections of December 2003 the Union of Right Forces, whose list was headed by both Nemtsov and Chubais, received just 2.4 million votes, or 4% of the total, thus falling short of the 5% threshold necessary to enter Parliament and losing all of its seats in the State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...

.

Official results of the election were put in doubt by exit polls and the alternative vote-count conducted by independent election observers, which showed the Union of Right Forces at over 5% of the national vote and thus eligible for parliamentary seats. Despite this, in January 2004 Boris Nemtsov formally resigned from the party leadership, accepting his responsibility for the election defeat.

Later career

In January 2004 Boris Nemtsov co-authored (with his longtime advisor and party colleague Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist, historian and politician. He studied in Great Britain at the John Lyon School in Harrow, London, and graduated with an B.A. and M.A. in History from Cambridge University...

) an article entitled "Appeal to the Putinist Majority", warning of the dangers of the impending Putin dictatorship, which appeared in "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" newspaper. In that same month Mr Nemtsov co-founded the "Committee 2008
Committee 2008
Committee 2008 is an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, formed in January 2004 in response to what they saw as the growing authoritarianism of President Vladimir Putin...

", an umbrella group of the Russian opposition which also included Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

, Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....

 and other prominent liberals.

In February 2004, Nemtsov was appointed as a director of the Neftyanoi Bank, and Chairman of Neftyanoi Concern, the bank’s parent company (Nicholson, 9 December 2005). In December 2005, however, prosecutors announced that the bank would be subject to an investigation following allegations of money laundering and fraud. Nemtsov subsequently stepped down from both his positions in the company citing that he wanted to minimize the political fallout that may ensue because of his continuing involvement in Russian politics. Nemtsov also alleged that his bank might have been targeted because of his friendship and support of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...

 who had stated his intention to run for president in 2008 (Pronina, 20 December 2005).

During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections, Nemtsov came out as a strong supporter of the eventual winner Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...

, while the Russian government backed his opponent. Shortly after the Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...

, as the elections and series of protests in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 came to be called, Yushchenko appointed Nemtsov as an economic advisor (Dow Jones International News, 14 February 2005). Nemtsov’s main goal would be to improve business ties between Ukraine and Russia, which had been damaged after the Putin government strongly supported Yushchenko's opponent in the presidential election. Nevertheless, Yushchenko's selection of Nemtsov was controversial in Russia and Ukraine because he was considered one of the few remaining vocal critics of President Putin (Dow Jones International News, 3 June 2005). The relationship between Nemtsov and the Ukrainian government became unstable in mid- 2005, when a group of ultra nationalist legislators called for Yushchenko to fire his Russian advisor after accusations that Nemtsov had criticized Ukrainian cabinet decisions (Dow Jones International News, 3 June 2005). Nemtsov remained as an economic advisor to Yushchenko, despite the criticism, until October 2006, when the office of the Ukrainian president announced that Nemtsov had been “relieved of his duties as a free lance presidential adviser.” (RIAN- Events in Russia, 9 October 2006).

On 26 December 2007, Nemtsov withdrew his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election
Russian presidential election, 2008
The Russian Presidential election of 2008, held on March 2, 2008 resulted in the election of Dmitry Medvedev as the third President of Russia. Medvedev, whose candidacy was supported by incumbent president Vladimir Putin and five political parties , received 71% of the vote, and defeated...

, saying that he did not want to draw votes away from the other candidate of the "democratic opposition", Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...

.

Nemtsov co-founded with Gary Kasparov the political opposition movement Solidarnost
Solidarnost
Solidarnost is a Russian liberal democratic political movement founded on 13 December 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces Solidarnost (Солидарность, Russian for...

 (Solidarity) on 13 December 2008. The organisation apparently hopes to unite the various opposition forces in Russia. Nemtsov announced at a Solidarnost meeting on 12 March 2009, that he would stand for mayor of Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...

 in the city's 26 April election. Nemtsov, a Sochi native, has criticised plans to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics
2014 Winter Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to be celebrated from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana. Both the Olympic and...

 in the town, a position he considers led to an alleged attack on him by Nashi members using ammonium chloride on 23 March 2009. On 27 April 2009 it was announced that the acting Sochi mayor and United Russia
United Russia
United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...

 candidate Anatoliy Pakhomov
Anatoliy Pakhomov
Anatoliy Nikolayevich Pakhomov is a Russian politician. He is currently the acting mayor of Sochi.Pakhomov served as the mayor of the town of Anapa from 2005 until 2008...

 had won the election with 77% of the vote. Boris Nemtsov, who came second with around 14% of the vote, contested the fairness of the election, alleging that he was denied media access and that government workers had been pressured to vote for Pakhomov.

Nemtsov is among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go
Putin must go
"Putin must go" is a website and a public campaign of the same name organised for the collection of signatures under an open letter demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin...

", published on 10 March 2010.

In September 2010 Boris Nemtsov together with Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ryzhkov is a Russian Professor of the Higher School of Economics , Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member ....

, Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...

 and Vladimir Milov
Vladimir Milov
Vladimir Milov is a Russian politician and the president of the Institute of Energy Policy,a Moscow-based independent think tank. He is the former Deputy Energy Minister of the Russian Federation....

 formed the coalition “For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption”, which in December was transformed into the People's Freedom Party
People's Freedom Party
People's Freedom Party “For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption” is a Russian liberal democratic political party founded on 13 December 2010 by opposition politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov, Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Milov. The name is a reference to the original liberal...

. In May 2011 the party submitted an application for registration to the Ministry of Justice, but one month later registration was denied. The party is examining various forms of boycott of the parliamentary elections of December 2011. It is also going to elect an alternative candidate for the presidential elections of March 2012.

On 16 December 2010 Vladimir Putin in a live television broadcast said that in the 90's Nemtsov, Milov and Ryzhkov "dragged a lot of billions along with Berezovsky and those who are now in prison... They have been pulled away from the manger, they had been spending heavily, and now they want to go back and fill their pockets". In January 2011 Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov and Vladimir Ryzhkov brought the case of Putin's statement before the Moscow City Court, but next month their suit was dismissed. According to the judge Tatiana Adamova, the names of Nemtsov, Milov and Ryzhkov were used by Putin merely as common names to refer to a certain class of politicians.

Arrests and imprisonment

On 25 November 2007, Nemtsov was arrested by police during an unauthorized protest against President Putin, he told the press. Nemtsov was released later that day.

On 31 December 2010, Nemtsov was arrested with other opposition leaders during a rally against government restrictions on public protests. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail on 2 January 2011.
The arrests were condemned by US Senators John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

 and Joe Lieberman
Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the senior United States Senator from Connecticut. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election. Currently an independent, he remains closely affiliated with the party.Born in Stamford, Connecticut,...

, and by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 who described him as a prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...

. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

called his arrest "a new low" in the governance of Russia.
Boris Nemtsov filled a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, who according to his lawyer, immediately accepted Nemtsov's complaint and agreed to treat the case among its new urgent procedure.

Political views

From the time of his dismissal from the government, Nemtsov became an important actor in the political discourse and eventually in the opposition to the Russian government
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...

 as led by Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov’s specific political beliefs have caused some to characterize him as a "new liberal" (Shlapentokh 1999, 1169). The "new liberals" can be differentiated from the so-called "old liberals" in Russia by their more hostile attitude towards the West. This group of political actors in Russia, of which Nemtsov was the main spokesperson, is characterized by "people’s capitalism", a term coined by Boris Nemtsov himself. People’s capitalism still accepts the market and private property as the pillars of a new Russian society, but also "rejects belief that market forces are the only effective regulator of all spheres of economic and social life" (1998, 203).

Nemtsov further expanded on his political ideas in a 2000 article published by the Harvard International Review. In this work, Nemtsov outlined his prediction of the future of Russian society and government, arguing that it will likely take the “moderately optimistic” path, characterized by conservatism and moderately reactionary shifts, where some political freedoms may be restricted, but not a whole scale reversion to Soviet style government, which he sees as the pessimistic path. Nemtsov warned however, that this path would likely lead to economic stagnation (2000, 17). Nemtsov also took issue with the power and autonomy enjoyed by many of the governors of the Republics, equating them to “feudal princes” and suggested a return to a structure that makes these leaders subject to federal control (2000, 21).

Reports

Since 2008 Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov
Vladimir Milov
Vladimir Milov is a Russian politician and the president of the Institute of Energy Policy,a Moscow-based independent think tank. He is the former Deputy Energy Minister of the Russian Federation....

 have published several reports criticising Putin's regime and proposing alternative ways of development for the country:
  • Putin. Results - February 2008
  • Putin and Gazprom - September 2008
  • Putin and the Crisis - February 2009
  • Sochi and the Olympics - April 2009
  • Luzhkov. Results - September 2009 (first edition)
  • Putin. Results. 10 years - June 2010. Translated into English as Putin: What 10 Years of Putin Have Brought. This is a revised edition of the report Putin. Results of 2008. This report has been published in one million of copies.
  • Putin. Corruption
    Putin. Corruption
    Putin. Corruption is an independent report on alleged corruption in Vladimir Putin's inner circle published by the leaders of opposition People's Freedom Party in Russia. The report was presented by them at the press conference on 28 March 2011...

     - March 2011. Written by co-chairmen of the People's Freedom Party
    People's Freedom Party
    People's Freedom Party “For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption” is a Russian liberal democratic political party founded on 13 December 2010 by opposition politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov, Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Milov. The name is a reference to the original liberal...

     Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov, Vladimir Ryzhkov
    Vladimir Ryzhkov
    Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ryzhkov is a Russian Professor of the Higher School of Economics , Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member ....

     and the Solidarity
    Solidarnost
    Solidarnost is a Russian liberal democratic political movement founded on 13 December 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces Solidarnost (Солидарность, Russian for...

     movement spokesman Olga Shorina. The priting of report is funded with donations. So far, funds have been collected for 440,000 copies.

The last two of these reports are currently distributed by activists of the Solidarity and the People's Freedom Party.

External links

  • Official site (in Russian)
  • Nemtsov's page on the Solidarity website (in Russian)
  • Nemtsov's blog i LiveJournal (in Russian)
  • Reports on Putin (in Russian)
  • Interview with Boris Nemtsov on BBC
    BBC
    The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

    's HARDtalk
    HARDtalk
    Hardtalk is a flagship BBC television programme, consisting of in-depth half-hour one-on-one interviews.It is broadcast four days a week on BBC World News and the BBC News channel. Launched in 1997, much of its worldwide fame is due to its global reach via BBC World...

     (Air date 7 February 2011)
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