MOSCOW, March 3 (UPI) -- Russia has banned an opposition leader and several European politicians from attending the funeral of slain politician Boris Nemtsov. 
 
 A court denied the request of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to leave jail where he is serving a 15-day sentence to attend the funeral. 
 
 Latvian member of the European Parliament Sandra Kalniete was denied entry into Russia at a Moscow airport. 
 
 "I was not coming to Russia to make political declarations and standing on the corner to offend the people," she told BBC News. "I was going to Russia to pay tribute to Boris Nemtsov, who I consider one of the brightest and most admirable political personalities in Russia." 
 
 Polish Speaker of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz was denied a visa. Borusewicz was to lead the Polish delegation at the funeral but instead he addressed the audience through a letter read out by deputy foreign minister Konrad Pawlik. 
 
 "Through my presence at the funeral, I had wanted to show that Poles are not anti-Russian, they are not enemies of a democratic Russia,'' Borusewicz wrote in a letter read out at the funeral. ''By paying tribute to the assassinated I had wanted to express great respect to all those Russians, the sons of the great Russian people who think like him." 
 
 Nemtsov's funeral began at about noon local time at Moscow's Troyekurovskoye cemetery. Tens of thousands rallied to mourn his death on Sunday. 
 
 Nemtsov was shot in the back with a pistol Friday night while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin. He was a former deputy prime minister under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and a sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin. The shooting came hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin's "mad, aggressive" policies. 
 
 A video of the apparent getaway vehicle used by the suspects in the Nemtsov murder has been released by LifeNews. 
 
 There have been no arrests in connection to the slaying. Authorities are offering nearly $50,000 for information related to the shooting. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Sarah Rainsford says people came in their thousands to say farewell 
 
 Thousands of Russians have bid farewell to murdered Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov as his funeral took place in the capital Moscow. 
 
 They queued patiently to view his coffin before it began its solemn journey to a city cemetery. 
 
 Several EU politicians and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were barred from attending the funeral. 
 
 Hours later, Mr Navalny accused the Russian authorities of responsibility for the murder. 
 
 In a statement (in Russian) from jail, where he is serving a 15-day sentence, he said: "I believe that Nemtsov was murdered by members of a government (special services) or pro-government organisation on the order of the country's political leadership (including Vladimir Putin)." 
 
 The question, he said, was whether the order had been given to kill Nemtsov or "stage an action that would have a high impact". 
 
 Alternatively, he alleged that Nemtsov had been killed on the order of officials in Yaroslavl region, where he had been investigating corruption. 
 
 No arrests have been made and no motive has been established for the crime. 
 
 Nemtsov's final resting place is at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, where murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya was buried in 2006. 
 
 A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, he was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin wall on Friday night. 
 
 New CCTV footage of the presumed getaway car has been released by a pro-Kremlin Russian news website, LifeNews. The video shows a vehicle making its way along Moscow streets but there is no close-up on the suspects inside. 
 
 At the scene: Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, Moscow 
 
 Image caption Among the mourners was Russian businessman Platon Lebedev (second from right), who was jailed along with Mikhail Khodorkovsky in what critics said was a politically motivated prosecution 
 
 Thousands turned out to bid farewell to Boris Nemtsov. They stood quietly, as a light snow fell, in a long queue that snaked around the park, up the hill and right on to Moscow's Garden Ring road. They brought flowers and lit candles, and talked of a man who - as a politician - had been like a 'bright light' to them: honest, and a true democrat. 
 
 As a man, they remembered someone full of energy and jokes; handsome, too, and easygoing. As well as sorrow at his death, I found people were deeply sceptical that those who killed Boris Nemtsov would ever be found. 
 
 His open coffin lay in a small room, surrounded by photographs of a life in politics. Many of those who took turns at the microphone there believe he was killed for his critical views. They accused their leaders of stirring up hatred of dissenters and using the powerful state run media machine to paint them as traitors. 
 
 One man in the queue told me that for him, though, Boris Nemtsov was the real patriot. A man who just wanted Russia to live better. 
 
 Who shot Boris Nemtsov? 
 
 Nemtsov killing polarises society 
 
 Profile: Boris Nemtsov 
 
 So many people came to see Nemtsov's coffin that when the viewing at the Sakharov human rights centre ended after its scheduled four hours, hundreds of people were still queuing outside. 
 
 "He was our ray of light," said Valentina Gorbatova, 80. "With his help, I think Russia would have risen up and become a strong country. It is the dream of all progressive people in Russia." 
 
 Former UK Prime Minister John Major, who was in Moscow to pay his respects, called for a full, transparent investigation into Nemtsov's murder, saying his voice would not be silenced. 
 
 It was, he added, his "saddest ever visit to Moscow". 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Nemtsov was buried in the same cemetery as murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Nemtsov's former partner Yekaterina Odintsova (2nd L), their children Anton (R) and Dina, and his mother Dina Eidman (2nd R) were in attendance 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Some mourners clutched books with portraits of the dead politician 
 
 Image caption Thousands of people had queued earlier in the day to see his coffin at the Sakharov human rights centre 
 
 Image caption Mourners heard speeches blaming a climate of hatred that labelled Kremlin critics like Nemtsov as traitors 
 
 Image caption Former UK Prime Minister John Major said it was his saddest visit to Moscow 
 
 Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete told the BBC she had been refused entry into Russia at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow without a proper explanation. 
 
 She said she had been made to wait two hours at the airport before being denied entry. 
 
 Bogdan Borusewicz, the Polish senate speaker who was to have led a delegation from his country, was denied a visa. 
 
 Russia said he was on a list of Polish officials barred from travelling to Russia, drawn up after the EU imposed sanctions on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine. 
 
 That drew condemnation from the EU, with European Parliament President Martin Schulz calling it a "high affront" which would further set back relations with Moscow. 
 
 He said such actions were "without the slightest element of reasoning" and said he would demand an official explanation. 
 
 President Putin was not attending the funeral, the Kremlin said. It sent in his stead the presidential envoy to the parliament, a relatively minor official. 
 
 Shot four times 
 
 Tens of thousands of people marched through central Moscow on Sunday to honour Nemtsov, with the opposition claiming some 50,000 people had attended the event. 
 
 Nemtsov had been due to lead an opposition march that day, but his killing turned the event into a mourning rally. 
 
 His allies have accused the Kremlin of involvement but President Putin condemned the murder as "vile" and "provocative", vowing to find the killers. 
 
 Nemtsov, 55, had been walking home from a restaurant with his Ukrainian girlfriend, Anna Durytska, when he was shot four times. 
 
 Ms Durytska, a 23-year-old model, was allowed to return to Ukraine after being questioned by Russian police. 
 
 She told Russian media she had not seen the killer, who struck from behind. 
 
 Russia's Federal Protective Service, in charge of presidential security, has said its surveillance cameras did not record the shooting because they were pointed towards the Kremlin. ||||| MOSCOW Thousands of Russians, many carrying red carnations, on Tuesday filed past the coffin of Boris Nemtsov, the Kremlin critic whose killing last week, friends say, showed the hazards of speaking out against Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 Aides to Putin deny any involvement in killing Nemtsov, who was shot in the back four times on Friday within sight of the Kremlin walls. Nemtsov's friends say he was the victim of an atmosphere of hatred whipped up against anyone who opposes the president. 
 
 "The shots were fired not only at Nemtsov but at all of us, at democracy in Russia," Gennady Gudkov, a prominent Kremlin opponent, said in a speech delivered next to the coffin. 
 
 "We never thought this could happen, but it did. Rest in peace my friend, your work will be continued." 
 
 Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was the most prominent opposition figure to be killed in Russia during Putin's 15-year rule. 
 
 Most of those paying their respects were members or sympathisers of Russia's liberal opposition, who feel deep alarm at Nemtsov's shooting but represent only a minority of the Russian population. Polls show most Russians support Putin, despite a sharp slide in the rouble and international sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. 
 
 But at the ceremony there was a show of solidarity for Nemtsov from several prominent figures who served with him under former President Boris Yeltsin and who still have influence within the business and political elite. 
 
 None of them criticised the Kremlin but their presence - led by Yeltsin's widow Naina - showed that there are faultlines within the system of power built by Putin which could deepen if that system comes under more stress. 
 
 Two European dignitaries were unable to attend the ceremony because Russian officials would not let them into the country. Moscow said one of them, a former Latvian foreign minister, had for some time been subject to a travel ban for her "anti-Russian activities". 
 
 Absent also was Alexei Navalny, a prominent Kremlin critic serving a 15-day jail term for violating rules on demonstrations. He said a court rejected his request to let him out of jail for a few hours so he could attend. 
 
 For four hours, Nemtsov's coffin stood in the centre of a hall at a human rights centre named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. The casket lid was open, revealing Nemtsov's head and upper body. Photographs of the 55-year-old hung on the walls, and sombre music played. 
 
 Nemtsov's mother, dressed in black, stood stooped over the coffin. His former partner Yekaterina Odintsova, with a black headscarf pulled over her blonde hair, stood nearby. The Russian government sent two deputy prime ministers. 
 
 POWERFUL FRIENDS 
 
 The queue of people waiting to go in stretched about a kilometre (half a mile) in the streets outside the hall, and hundreds had to be turned away. 
 
 "He was our hope," said Tatyana, a pensioner queuing to pay her respects. "I feel like Putin killed me on the day he died. This last year has been full of suffering." 
 
 Nemtsov was later buried at the Troyekurovskoye cemetery, on the outskirts of Moscow. Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist and Kremlin opponent shot dead in 2006, is buried at the same cemetery. 
 
 Though he became an ardent Putin critic, Nemtsov also maintained friendships with people from the Yeltsin era who remained loyal to the Kremlin under Putin. 
 
 Among those Yelstin-era allies paying their respects were German Gref, head of Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank by assets, Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister still close to the Kremlin, Anatoly Chubais, head of a state-controlled technology firm, and Sergei Kiriyenko, a former prime minister who runs the state atomic power firm. 
 
 It has long been rumoured in Moscow that when Yeltsin stepped down in 1999 he extracted a promise from Putin that his circle would be protected. The killing of Nemtsov, whom Yeltsin at one point groomed as a successor, may be seen by some in the old Yeltsin milieu as a betrayal of a deal. 
 
 KREMLIN BACKDROP 
 
 The killing of such a prominent former official, against the backdrop of the Kremlin towers themselves in an area closely watched by the security services, sent a chilling message that no status confers immunity and no place in Russia is safe. 
 
 In an interview with Reuters in Washington, President Barack Obama said it was a sign of a worsening climate in Russia, where civil rights and media freedoms have been rolled back. 
 
 Among numerous official theories, some Russian government officials have said they suspect the murder was a "provocation" carried out by Putin's opponents to discredit him. 
 
 Russian investigators say they are actively working to track down Nemtsov's killers. 
 
 The killing may galvanise Russia's splintered liberal opposition, and deepen a sense among urban, middle-class professionals that their country is slipping into a cycle of fear and repression. 
 
 But it is unlikely to cause an upsurge of dissent across society. Nemtsov's fierce criticism of the Russian intervention in Ukraine was out of step with the broader public mood, and he was tainted by his time in government in the chaotic 1990s. 
 
 "I don't think he was killed for political motives," said Andrei, an employee at a motorcycle shop near the venue where Nemtsov's coffin was displayed. "He had a murky past and that's why he was killed." 
 
 (Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Peter Graff)
– Mourners have gathered at a human rights center to remember slain Vladimir Putin critic Boris Nemtsov—but many haven't been welcome at the event, the BBC reports. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, held for 15 days after promoting a demonstration, hasn't been allowed out of jail, while Poland's senate speaker and a Latvian official weren't allowed to enter the country. The Latvian official, a member of the European parliament, says she was stopped at the airport for two hours and ultimately turned away. "I was not coming to Russia to make political declarations and standing on the corner to offend the people," she tells UPI. The Polish official, Bogdan Borusewicz, couldn't obtain a visa amid the conflict in Ukraine: Following EU sanctions against Russia, Borusewicz's name was on a list of Polish leaders who couldn't enter, according to Russia. Putin himself didn't attend the ceremony, the BBC notes, but the deputy prime minister did. Thousands arrived for the event, with the line of mourners reaching about a mile long, Reuters reports. Among them was Boris Yeltsin's widow, Naina Yeltsina, Another government opponent spoke: "The shots were fired not only at Nemtsov but at all of us, at democracy in Russia." Added a mourner: "He was our hope … I feel like Putin killed me on the day he died."