Putin biographer: He's not dead — but chaos is brewing in the Kremlin

On March 12, Reuters reported that the murder of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov has “exposed rarely seen tensions between different camps inside President Vladimir Putin’s system of rule.”

“Some of Nemtsov’s associates say his shooting is being used by one faction to send Putin a message that they are unhappy and need to be reckoned with,” according to Reuters.

Additionally, Former economic policy advisor to Putin and current senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Andrey Illarionov, wrote in his blog that Putin’s continued absence suggests a palace coup.