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.
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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.