You're reading: Nemtsov legacy: Russia behind war in Ukraine (INFOGRAPHIC)

The findings of Boris Nemtsov's posthumous "Putin. War" won’t be news to most Ukrainians.

The project, started by the Russian opposition politician and completed by his allies following Nemtsov’s Feb. 27 murder in Moscow, was to counter Kremlin propaganda and lies while exposing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deep involvement in the war against Ukraine.

The findings are aimed at Russians who get most of their news from state-controlled media outlets, which portray the conflict in Ukraine as a civil war and not Russian-instigated.

Taken together, the 64-page report is the most complete compilation of Moscow’s culpability for its 15-month war in eastern Ukraine, as well as its military invasion and annexation of Crimea. The explosive findings that Nemtsov started to uncover are why he was killed only steps from the Kremlin, his supporters believe.

The account says that Russia has spent about $1.3 billion in the last 10 months to wage the war, including supplying soldiers and weapons.

The report also estimates that two battles alone, in Illovaisk in August and Debaltseve in February, cost the lives of at least 220 Russian soldiers. Many more Ukrainian soldiers were killed in those Donetsk Oblast cities, both of which ended in stinging defeats and retreats for Ukraine.

The authors also say that advanced Russia-made weapons not available on the export market are being used in Ukraine.

Kremlin-backed separatists most likely used a Russian Buk missile system to shoot down the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane in July, killing all 298 people on board, it found.

Moreover, the Kremlin directly commands the combined Russian-separatist forces, according to one of the findings.

Nemtsov’s supporters say that changing the Russian public opinion about the war in Ukraine may be the best shot that Ukraine has at avoiding all-out war.

Fellow Nemtsov opposition activists – Ilya Yashin and Leonid Martinyuk, journalists Oleg Kashin and Aidar Muzhdabayev and former deputy prime minister Alfred Koch – went to great lengths to get the report published, scrambling to put together all the notes and materials that they could find.

They say that Nemtsov, who was gunned down in front of the Kremlin in February, was killed over the allegations in the report.

“Since Russian propaganda works so well and so effectively … this report is meant to counter that” for the many Russian citizens who don’t support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine, said former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a close colleague of Nemtsov.

The propaganda that Kasyanov spoke of while presenting the report had repeatedly portrayed Nemtsov as a traitor and enemy of the people for his opposition to Russia’s policies in Ukraine.

Some believe the media’s vilification of him is what got him killed.

Throughout the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s state-run media has ramped up its rhetoric and repeatedly fund itself in hot water over misleading or even falsified news reports. Despite this fact, Putin’s approval ratings have hovered around 70-80 percent – a strong testament to the effectiveness of such propaganda.

And despite the numerous reports of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, most ordinary citizens do not believe that their government has sent any troops there, arguing instead that the crisis in Ukraine is an internal one.

The report’s authors said their mission is to remove this blinder, to debunk the myths spread by state television.

“This report was written by true patriots of Russia, with the aim of protecting our national interests … the policies of Putin, the war Putin has created with our brotherly nation … all of this goes against the interests of Russia, and it causes great damage to our country,” opposition activist Yashin said.

“Russian propaganda calls the armed Russian forces fighting in Ukraine ‘volunteers.’ We consider them mercenaries,” Yashin said, adding that he only wants the public to know the truth.

Nemtsov report, Russia, war, Ukraine

The report explains how many Russia’s combatants and Kremlin-affiliated separatists are involved in war against Ukraine.

Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Centre for Political Studies, believes the report may help Russians who have already begun to understand the effect of the propaganda on television screens. Yet, it’s just the beginning of a long-term process, he said.

“Most Russians believe the information they are given and, unfortunately, the coffins with Russian soldiers are the most powerful evidence of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine for many of them,” Fesenko said. “The report came out just in time. But it’s like pills that don’t have an immediate effect.”

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Russian political and military analyst, is skeptical about the report’s impact.

“In Russia, public opinion doesn’t have much impact, there’s no democracy like in Ukraine. Besides, few people will read because most of Russian society consumes televised propaganda,” Felgenhauer told the Kyiv Post.

Nor will the report have any effect on Putin, Felgenhauer said.

“In fact, the report does not reveal any secrets, but even if it did — the Russian military denies everything. It’s not new for the country, “ he said, noting that from 1946 until 2000, the Soviet Union and Russia were involved in 46 local military conflicts around the world.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova contributed to this report.