KIEV, Ukraine -- "I hope common sense will prevail, and Putin won't kill you."
"God willing. I hope so, too."
That conversation, between an interviewer and Boris Nemtsov, the liberal Russian opposition activist and former deputy prime minister, was on Feb. 10, just 17 days before he was gunned down around midnight on Friday in a gangland style murder a few hundred yards from the Kremlin and the famous onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. It happened two days before he was to lead an opposition rally he organized in Moscow.
Mere hours before his death, Nemtsov went on Ekho Mosky radio to call on Muscovites to join the Sunday march.
Last December, Nemtsov spoke about "risks" in Russian politics. "Everyone must decide for themselves," he said.
Nemtsov was among the bright young reformers in the turbulent 1990s who quickly climbed the ranks of government, catching the eye of then-President Boris Yeltsin, who tapped him for the position of deputy prime minister. There was a moment when he was even thought of as a potential successor to Yeltsin, but threw his support behind Vladimir Putin when the latter won the job.
"Under [Putin's] leadership, Russia will not become France," Nemtsov wrote in a New York Times op-ed penned with prominent political scientist Ian Bremmer in 2000. The two men then thought Putin would be good for Russia. "Russia could do considerably worse than have a leader with an unwavering commitment to the national interest. And it is difficult to see how to do better."
With his friend shot dead at the age of 55, Bremmer recalled that piece Friday night.
15 years ago, Boris Nemtsov and I thought Putin was the best way forward for Russia. We were wrong. RIP, Boris. http://t.co/oPEKikvdum— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) February 27, 2015
In previous years, Nemtsov vocally criticized the Kremlin and Putin, in particular. In recent months, he lambasted Russia for fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
In Nemtsov's last interview, just two hours before his murder, he suggested asking Putin a simple question: "Why are Russian soldiers dying and you, as Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Putin, lie and claim they're not fighting? We see the graves of these soldiers ... in Kostroma, in Pskov, in Nizhny Novgorod."
Nemtsov was among the ever-shrinking group of Russian politicians to persist in doing so. And he paid the ultimate price for it.
The gruesome murder, in cold blood, by a gunman who fired a Makarov pistol with deadly accuracy at Nemtsov's back at least six times from the open window of a moving white vehicle, has sent shockwaves through a Russian opposition that has seen its leaders increasingly imprisoned, exiled and murdered under the rule of President Vladimir Putin.
Opposition in Russia: Navalny (behind bars), Khodorkovsky (exiled), Nemtsov (killed). Draw your own conclusions.— Olaf Koens (@obk) February 27, 2015
As Putin denounced Nemtsov's murder, calling it a "provocation" meant to destabilize the government and saying that he would personally oversee the investigation, Russia's investigative Committee worked fast to come up with possible motives.
It could have been done by his allies as a "holy sacrifice" to rattle the government, or it could have been Islamist extremists, or someone close to internal events in Ukraine might have done it. "There is no doubt that the crime was meticulously planned, as well as the place chosen for the murder," said the committee.
But that's all highly unlikely. What's more probable, say friends of Nemtsov, opposition activists and politicians -- all of whom live under constant surveillance by the Kremlin and endure endless pressure to shape up -- is that his killing was yet another government-ordered assassination.
Vladimir Milov, a Russian opposition politician, says he's certain the murder was orchestrated by the government "to sow fear."
"The killer left witnesses alive and untouched. The murder took place in broad view and in an area where certainly all records of movements of vehicles are kept," Milov wrote on his blog. "Based on available information, before the murder, Nemtsov was in cafe GUM. No one could have known when he finished there and where he would go. This means that either there was wiretapping, or a vehicle had to tail him to the area."
Other Russia watchers believe it might not be so straightforward.
I don't think Putin "ordered" this, just as he didn't "order" Politkovskaya. Putin creates atmosphere, sends cues. The rest is up to others.— Keith Gessen (@keithgessen) February 28, 2015
They say Nemtsov's murder has raised questions about the consequences of the Kremlin's vitriolic messages and toxic propaganda campaign through state-sponsored media.
If Putin gave order to murder Boris Nemtsov is not the point. It is Putin's dictatorship. His 24/7 propaganda about enemies of the state.— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 27, 2015
You teach people to hate. You encourage people to hate. You push messages of hate. They then do hateful things.— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 28, 2015
How long did they think they could go like this without somebody picking up a gun? pic.twitter.com/za00u5H6hz— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) February 27, 2015
Dead but not forgotten, Nemtsov was eulogized on Saturday as a happy man who always smiled and loved life. His colleagues and fellow activists said the rally he organized for Sunday, and promoted in his last tweet, will go on. Opposition supporters will also march to the bridge over the Moskva River where Nemtsov was shot to death.
Opposition march tomorrow will take place in the centre of Moscow, sanctioned by the authorities - @leonidvolkov— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) February 28, 2015
But big, important questions linger after Nemtsov's death: Without him, will Russia's opposition movement endure, or did it die with him? Will the subsequent rallies be merely a flash in the pan? And who, if anyone, can and will step up to fill Nemtsov's shoes?
Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion and staunch Putin critic who lives in self-exile in New York, wrote in a pessimistic note on Facebook after news broke of Nemtsov's death that "a man of Boris's quality no longer fit Putin's Russia."
"He always believed Russia could change from the inside and without violence; after 2012 I disagreed with this," said Kasparov. "When we argued, Boris would tell me I was too hasty, and that in Russia, you had to live a long time to see change. Now he'll never see it. Rest In Peace."