“He was a true friend of Ukraine”

Boris Nemtsov was buried in Moscow on March 3. Thousands of people came to pay their last respects to the co-chair of the PARNAS party, queuing in a kilometers-long line to enter the Sakharov Center where the memorial service was held. People blanketed the hearse in flowers, and then chanted “Russia will be free!” President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has posthumously bestowed the Order of Freedom on Nemtsov.

Author, diplomat, and public figure Yurii Shcherbak was not acquainted with Nemtsov, but on learning of the murder, “I felt my heart breaking” and “had the impression like I had lost a loved one,” he told The Day. “I am pleased to hear that President Poroshenko has bestowed the Order of Freedom on Nemtsov. It is a very fitting award for this bright and talented Russian politician, removed from the political scene by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Nemtsov was a genuinely great Russian. He was also a true friend of Ukraine. We should adequately honor his memory in Kyiv by renaming a street or a square,” Shcherbak noted.