Video reports conflict in probe of Putin critic’s slaying

MOSCOW (AP) — Conflicting reports emerged Monday about the availability of possible surveillance footage showing the slaying of Boris Nemtsov, a fierce Kremlin critic gunned down in Moscow, as top Russian officials again promised that his killing would be “fully investigated.”

No suspects have been arrested since Nemtsov was shot dead Friday night. According to Russian investigators, he was walking home on a Moscow bridge near the Kremlin with a woman when he was shot four times by an assailant, who then escaped in a light-colored car.

The area is one of the most secure, heavily photographed parts of the Russian capital but it was not clear what CCTV footage may have captured his slaying. The attack came just hours after a radio interview in which Nemtsov denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “mad, aggressive policy” in Ukraine.

The business newspaper Kommersant on Monday quoted anonymous sources in the Interior Ministry as saying there was no CCTV footage of the killing because the cameras in question were not working at the time.

However, Yelena Novikova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s information technology department, which oversees the city’s surveillance cameras, said Monday that all cameras “belonging to the city” were operating correctly on the night of Nemtsov’s death. She said federal authorities also had surveillance cameras near the Kremlin that are not under her organization’s control.

Still, Novikova would not confirm the existence of any video of the killing, saying the police investigation was still underway.