Ex-Deputy Russian PM shot dead in Moscow
Charismatic former deputy prime minister-turned Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has been killed in a drive-by shooting on a Moscow bridge.
His death comes just a day before a planned protest against President Vladimir Putin’s rule. The Kremlin said Mr Putin would personally oversee the investigation.
Mr Nemtsov, 55, was a sharp critic of Mr Putin, assailing the government’s inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin’s policy on Ukraine, which has strained Russia-West ties to a degree unseen since Cold War times.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees Russia’s police force, said Mr Nemtsov was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin shortly after midnight.
Mr Nemtsov served as deputy prime minister in the 1990s and once was seen as a possible successor to Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first elected president.
After Mr Putin was first elected in 2000, Mr Nemtsov became one of the most vocal critics of his rule, helping to organise street protests and writing extensively about official corruption.
