page_title: Boris Nemtsov
section_title: Political career, 1986–2004
hierarchical_section_title: Boris Nemtsov / Political career, 1986–2004
caption_attribution_description: English: Obama, Gozman, Nemtsov, Zyuganov, Mizulina, Mitrokhin Русский: Обама, Гозман, Немцов, Зюганов, Мизулина, Митрохин
context_page_description: Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. Nemtsov was one of the most important figures in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy. He had a successful political career in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin. From 2000 until his death, he was an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was assassinated on 27 February 2015, beside his Ukrainian partner Anna Durytska, on a bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow, with four shots fired from the back. In the weeks before his death, Nemtsov expressed fear that Putin would have him killed. In late June 2017, five Chechen men were found guilty by a jury in a Moscow court for agreeing to kill Nemtsov in exchange for 15 million rubles; neither the identity nor whereabouts of the person who hired them is known.
  Nemtsov criticized Putin's government as an increasingly authoritarian, undemocratic regime, highlighting widespread embezzlement and profiteering ahead of the Sochi Olympics, and Russian political interference and military involvement in Ukraine. After 2008, Nemtsov published in-depth reports detailing the corruption under Putin, which he connected directly with the President.
context_section_description: In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Nemtsov organized a protest movement in his hometown which effectively prevented construction of a new nuclear power plant in the region.
  In 1989, Nemtsov unsuccessfully ran for the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies on a reform platform which for the time was quite radical, promoting ideas such as multiparty democracy and private enterprise.
  In Russia's first free elections of 1990, he ran for the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic representing Gorky, later renamed Nizhny Novgorod. Nemtsov was elected, the only non-communist candidate. He defeated twelve others. Once 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. In this position he met Boris Yeltsin, who was impressed with his work. During the October 1991 attack on the government by Yeltsin opponents, Nemtsov vehemently supported the president and stood by him during the entire clash. After those events, Yeltsin rewarded Nemtsov's loyalty with the position of presidential representative in his home region of Nizhny Novgorod.
  In November 1991, Yeltsin appointed him Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. He was re-elected to that position by popular vote in December 1995. His tenure was marked by a wide-ranging, chaotic free market reform program nicknamed "Laboratory of Reform" for Nizhny Novgorod and resulted in significant economic growth for the region. Nemtsov's reforms won praise from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who visited Nizhny Novgorod in 1993.
  From the very outset of Nemtsov's tenure as governor, according to Serge Schmemann, Nemtsov "embarked on a whirlwind campaign to transform the region, drawing enthusiastic support from a host of Western agencies." Although the province was closed to foreigners for years and "there wasn't even enough paper money for the privatization program", he was optimistic about Moscow's future and consequently "pushed ahead on his own, even issuing his own money—chits, to be eventually exchanged for rubles that came to be known as 'Nemtsovki.'" Nemtsov very openly looked to the West as a model for Russia's future. Schmemann noted that Nemtsov adopted the westernized title "Governor" rather than the Russian "Head of Administration".
  After Nemtsov's death, Leonid Bershidsky recalled meeting him in 1992 during his tenure as governor. "A brilliant young physicist", recounted Bershidsky, "he was trying to practice liberal economics in a gloomy Soviet-era industrial city that had long been off-limits to foreigners." Bershidsky described his eloquence and demeanor as that of "a Hollywood movie politician transplanted into the Russian hinterland."
  In December 1993, Nemtsov was elected to the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament. During the election campaign he was backed by Russia's Choice and Yabloko, which were then the principal liberal parties in the country.
  In 1996, Nemtsov brought Yeltsin a petition with one million signatures against the first war in Chechnya, which he had signed himself.
  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 tasked with restructuring the monopolies and reforming the housing and social sectors. He became widely popular with the public and appeared favoured to become President of Russia in 2000. Boris Yeltsin introduced him to Bill Clinton as his chosen successor. In the summer of 1997, opinion polls gave 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.
  Nemtsov had worked in Moscow's "White House" for only a year and a half, although he stated he had some success. He ended the corrupt act of stashing budget funds in commercial banks. He also managed to introduce an anti
caption: Barack Obama and Russian political leaders, namely liberals Leonid Gozman, Boris Nemtsov, communist Gennady Zyuganov, social democrat Yelena Mizulina and social liberal Sergey Mitrokhin
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