Russian Opposition leader shot dead

February 28, 2015 10:32 pm | Updated April 02, 2016 09:07 am IST - Moscow:

Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic former deputy prime minister-turned-Russian Opposition leader, was shot and killed in Moscow on Saturday, officials said.

Nemtsov’s death comes just a day before a planned protest against President Vladimir Putin’s rule. The Kremlin said that Putin would personally oversee the investigation.

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 Russian Interior Ministry said Nemtsov was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking a bridge just outside the Kremlin shortly after midnight.

Nemtsov served a deputy prime minister in the 1990s and once was seen as a possible successor to Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first elected president.

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