Nemtsov’s Speech for Black Ribbon Day

Boris Nemtsov gave a speech yesterday (via link) at the History, Memory and Politics in Eastern and Central Europe conference convened by the University of Toronto, where Robert Amsterdam was among the speakers.  Peter Goodspeed of the National Post has a report on his comments:

A day after he was arrested for parading in Moscow on Russia’s Flag Day without a permit, Mr. Nemtsov attacked Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister and former president, as a “son of the KGB [who] believes not in freedom but the dictatorship of an authoritarian style of government.”

“Putinism is a disaster for the country,” Mr. Nemtsov, the keynote speaker at a University of Toronto Black Ribbon Day conference, History, Memory and Politics in Eastern and Central Europe, said via a computer link from Moscow.

“Putin is against freedom; he is afraid of the Russian people; he is afraid of a rally; he is afraid of the opposition and he is afraid of elections.

“The Russian people are just so tired of Putin and his team that they will ultimately change the system. But the real danger for the country is that there will be a bloody revolution.”