Reuters) - Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and former deputy prime minister, has been shot dead in central Moscow, the Interior Ministry said early on Saturday.
Nemtsov, 55, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, had been due to take part on Sunday in the first big opposition protest in months in the Russian capital.
He was shot four times late on Friday night, not far from the Kremlin in the center of Moscow. Police cars blocked the street where he was shot. An ambulance was also nearby.
Oh, boy.
http://www.reuters.com/...
2:46 PM PT: UPDATE from WP
"At least seven shots were fired at Nemtsov from a passing car, according to Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, the Interfax news agency reported. Investigators rushed to the scene and were questioning witnesses, he said.
Russia’s state-run Rossiya 24 television interrupted its programming to carry live imagery of the central Moscow bridge where Nemtsov was killed. Flashing police lights lit up the night. The bridge, in the heart of Moscow, runs from near the walls of the Kremlin to an island in the Moscow River where major opposition rallies were held in 2011 and 2012.
A close associate of Nemtsov, opposition activist Ilya Yashin, confirmed Nemtsov’s death on Facebook.
“Nemtsov has been shot. He is dead,” Yashin wrote."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
3:05 PM PT: UPDATE 2: "I'm afraid Putin will kill me…"
'http://www.bbc.com/...