February 27:
Russia's political opposition is reeling from the murder of Boris Nemtsov, but its leaders already have little doubt as to where to point the finger of blame. "Who gave the order to kill Nemtsov? Who knows," former chess champion and dissident Gary Kasparov has told Bloomberg. "But this was done not far from the Kremlin and it would have been done by Putin's cronies." The message, they say, is crystal clear. As Kasparov, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, has put it: "We have no allergy to blood and anyone can be killed."
February 28:
The death of Boris Nemtsov marks an escalation in the "hybrid terror" campaign being waged by the Kremlin against its political opposition, according to a new Radio Free Europe analysis. "Like the hybrid war against Ukraine, Putin's war at home, his Hybrid Great Terror campaign against his domestic critics, uses multiple methods: a well-honed disinformation campaign, legal machinations, stage-managed public demonstrations, and indiscriminate violence," writes RFE's Brian Whitmore in his "Power Vertical" blog. "The regime's opponents have been derided as traitors in the state media, harassed by Kremlin-sponsored youth groups, hit with absurd criminal charges, put under house arrest, and sent to prison camps. They've been marginalized, vilified, and ridiculed to the point of irrelevance."
March 1:
Two days after Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in central Moscow, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the street to march in his honor. The BBC reports that the protesters carried banners bearing Nemtsov's likeness and the slogan "we are not afraid," a reference to widespread speculation that Nemtsov's murder was perpetrated - or at least ordered - by the Kremlin.
March 3:
Russia's declining economic conditions are hitting its citizens in the wallet. According to The Moscow Times, in January the average monthly salary in Russia dropped to just 31,200 rubles, or $500. The news comes amid a slew of other negative indicators. The national unemployment rate in Russia rose to 5.5 percent in early 2015, and continues to rise. Meanwhile, the costs of food is skyrocketing, rising some 22 percent in the month of February alone. By the end of 2015, according to assessments, "Spending on food is expected to account for 50 to 55 percent of household income."
Russian officials, however, don't seem to have much of a plan for remedying the situation. Most famously, Ilya Gaffner, a "United Russia" party lawmaker from Sverdlovsk, has suggested that citizens cope with the latest economic turmoil by "eating less," saying that the inflation rate would "not [be] that bad" if they simply limited their food consumption.
March 4:
Russia's military presence in Ukraine continues to grow. According to Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Commander of U.S. Army Europe, approximately 12,000 Russian troops are now in eastern Ukraine, supporting the activities of separatist forces there. The Moscow Times reports Hodges as telling reporters that the Russian contingent is "made up of military advisers, weapons operators and combat troops," and that "a further 29,000 soldiers" have been stationed in the Crimea Peninsula.
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