Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow yesterday, carrying banners declaring “I am not afraid” and chanting “Russia without Putin” in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.

Families, the old and young walked slowly, with many holding portraits of the Opposition politician and former deputy prime minister who was shot dead while walking home from a nearby restaurant on Friday night.

The authorities have suggested the Opposition itself may have been behind his shooting in an attempt to create a martyr and unite the fractured movement. His supporters have blamed the authorities.

“If we can stop the campaign of hate that’s being directed at the opposition, then we have a chance to change Russia. If not, then we face the prospect of mass civil conflict,” Gennady Gudkov, an Opposition leader, said.

Putin’s rule is autocracy that flaunts international norms

“The authorities are corrupt and don’t allow any threats to them to emerge. Boris was uncomfortable for them.”

His murder has divided opinion in a country where for years after the Soviet Union collapsed many yearned for the stability later brought by former KGB agent Vladimir Putin. A small but active Opposition now says Putin’s rule has become an autocracy that flaunts international norms after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula last year, fanned nationalism over the separatist war in eastern Ukraine and clamped down on dissent.

Thousands rallied in Moscow yesterday in honour of Boris Nemtsov who was murdered on Friday. Photo: Reuters

“Nemtsov was harmful to the authorities, but the authorities themselves are criminal. The authorities have trampled on all international rights, seized Crimea, started war with Ukraine,” said Yuri Voinov, an elderly physicist.

People walked in the rain within view of the Kremlin’s red walls and past the spot, now covered in flowers, where Nemtsov was shot dead. One elderly woman, her hair tucked into a woollen cap, held up a hand-written sign to cover her face: “It’s a geopolitical catastrophe when a KGB officer declares himself president for life.”