VIDEO: Lukes on Nemtsov Murder
Igor Lukes, professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that Vladimir Putin was using Chechen stereotypes to stifle inquiry about the suspicious murder of his prominent political critic Boris Nemtsov.
“I think one would have to be very detached from the real world not to be inclined toward suspicion, skepticism,” said Lukes. “I think it’s fair to say that Putin is playing on the stereotypical view that Russians many have, that turns every Chechen into a terrorist.”
Lukes made his remarks in an interview on Canada’s CTV news network. You can watch the entire interview here.
Lukes is an Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic in New England. His books include On the Edge of the Cold War: American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague (New York: Oxford, 2012), Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center, the working papers series, 2006), Ceskoslovensko mezi Stalinem a Hitlerem: Benesova cesta k Mnichovu (Prague: Prostor, 1999), and Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 1930′s (New York: Oxford, 1996), which won the Boston Authors Club Award and the Kahn Award. Lukes is also a co-author and co-editor ofThe Munich Conference, 1938: Prelude to World War II (London: Frank Cass, 1999), Inside the Apparat: Perspectives on the Soviet Union (1990), and Gorbachev’s USSR: A System in Crisis (1990).