MOSCOW — As supporters of Boris Y. Nemtsov, the slain Russian opposition leader, laid flowers Saturday on the pavement where he had been shot dead hours earlier, the Russian authorities said they were investigating several theories about the crime, including the possibility that fellow members of the opposition had killed Mr. Nemtsov to create a martyr.
That line of investigation would examine whether Mr. Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former first deputy prime minister and longtime leader of the opposition, had become a “sacrificial victim” to rally support for opponents of the government, the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
The statement, the fullest official response to Mr. Nemtsov’s killing so far, said the police were pursing half a dozen leads in the case, the highest-profile assassination in Russia during the tenure of President Vladimir V. Putin.
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“With this murder, the effect of a fearless voice was silenced in a brutal and cowardly end,” he said, demanding a thorough investigation that would quickly bring the perpetrators to justice.
Alexandra Odynova contributed reporting.
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