US intelligence agencies killed opposition leader Boris Nemtsov to orchestrate a regime change in Russia, pro-Kremlin activists that include a senator and the leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin's favorite biker gang said at a press conference in Moscow.

Referring to the pro-Western Euromaidan protests in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, the leaders of Russia's "Anti-Maidan" movement said Nemtsov had become the "first victim of Maidan in Russia" when he was killed by four bullets to the back in view of the Kremlin on Friday night. Pundits in state media have often argued the Kiev protests were a US-organized "coup" that brought a "fascist junta" to power.

A former prime minister, Nemtsov had written several reports on state corruption and was reportedly working on one about Russian military support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. But nationalist author Nikolai Starikov argued at the press conference that the opposition leader had actually been an asset of US intelligence who had worked against Russia's interests throughout his career.

"To me it's obvious that the instigators of Nemtsov's murder were his American curators, who always use the same methods. As soon as a revolutionary becomes ineffective, as soon as his death will bring more use than his activities, they kill him, then create a big furor around it to give his death more significance," he said. https://news.vice.com/article/pro-kremlin-activists-claim-boris-nemtsov-killed-by-american-curators