Worse, very few Russians believe the opposition leaders could improve their livelihoods or properly govern the country. Therefore, the political ecology in Russia is unlikely to change despite the West's rabid reaction to Nemtsov's assassination.

But Russia has to worry about more than just its sagging economy, because all the five suspects detained for Nemtsov's assassination are from Chechnya (or other parts of the restive North Caucasus). Their ethnicity raises a myriad of highly sensitive questions because of the intense clashes between Russian forces and separatist Islamist rebels in Chechnya.

Islamic extremism has become a major threat to Russia, which is home to more than 20 million Muslims, with 1 million of them now being residents of Moscow.

In particular, more than 1,000 Chechen Islamic militants have reportedly joined the jihad led by the Islamic State group, which has been wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.

Nemtsov's comments on the attack on the French satirical magazine CharlieHebdo in January, therefore, could have offended and motivated some Islamists in Russia to plot his assassination.

Given these facts, along with the Western sanctions, plummeting international oil prices and Russia's declining foreign exchange reserves, Putin has all the more reason to focus his efforts on stabilizing the situation and taking measures to boost the country's economy, since Putin seems determined to do exactly that-evident in his move to de-peg the Russian currency from the dollar.

Putin will not back down, just as he has not when dealing with Ukraine crisis. Hence the West should abandon the old anti-Putin card, or else it will only create more confrontations between the West and Russia.

The author is an associate professor for Eurasian Studies at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.