​‘Russia not beacon of democracy, but much freer than it was in 90s’

Following the murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, President Obama lashed out at Moscow. He said: “I have no idea at this point exactly what happened. What I do know is more broadly the fact that freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of information, basic civil rights and civil liberties inside of Russia are in much worse shape now than they were four or five, or ten years ago."

RT: Do you believe these accusations are justified?

Evgeniy Minchenko: No, I don’t think so. I would say that if we compare it, for example, with the Ukrainian situation…it is much worse than in Russia with the freedom of speech, with civil rights, and so on. I would say that situation in Russia now is much better [regarding] basic civil rights than it was four or five years ago, as President Obama said.

For example, now we have governor races and we have much more liberal rules to register political parties. So I totally disagree with Mr. Obama. Of course, Russia is not a beacon of liberal democracy but I guess now Russia is a [much freer] country then it was, for example, in the 90’s.

RT: Among the things Obama mentioned is no freedom of assembly. But we saw tens of thousands of people marching in Moscow's streets in memory of Nemtsov, and people were allowed to take part without a fuss at all. So what's the problem here?

EM: I totally agree with you, because they had a permission to make this assembly in the center of Moscow just in one day. I guess that the government and the city of Moscow [are very] welcoming to those people who wanted to remember Boris Nemtsov. So I don’t see any problem.

RT: The mainstream Western media has also been quick to jump to conclusions without supplying any evidence. Why has this case got them so excited?

EM: That is about attitude… because if something happens in Russia of course they have to blame Putin. That is the main point form the mainstream media.

RT: In your opinion, who's benefiting from this murder?

EM: I’m pretty sure that the beneficiaries of this situation are people who want to change the situation in the country, who want to destabilize Russia.