MOSCOW — Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, a day before a planned protest against the government.
The death of Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, ignited a fury among opposition figures who assailed the Kremlin for creating an atmosphere of intolerance of any dissent and called the killing an assassination. Putin offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation.
Nemtsov was working on a report presenting evidence that he thought proved Russia’s direct involvement in the rebellion that erupted in eastern Ukraine last year. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and sophisticated weapons. Moscow denies the accusations.
Putin ordered Russia’s top law enforcement chiefs to personally oversee the probe of Nemtsov’s killing.
“Putin noted that this cruel murder has all the makings of a contract hit and is extremely provocative,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.
President Barack Obama called on Russia’s government to perform a “prompt, impartial and transparent” investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice. Obama called Nemtsov a “tireless advocate” for the rights of Russian citizens.
Nemtsov assailed the government’s inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin’s Ukraine policy, which has strained relations between Russia and the West to a degree unseen since Cold War times.
On the radio a few hours before his death, Nemtsov criticized Putin for plunging Russia into the crisis by his “mad, aggressive and deadly policy of war against Ukraine.”
“The country needs a political reform,” Nemtsov said, speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio. “When power is concentrated in the hands of one person and this person rules for ever, this will lead to an absolute catastrophe, absolute.”
Nemtsov’s attorney, Vadim Prokhorov, said the politician had received threats on social networks and told police about them, but authorities didn’t take steps to protect him.
The Russian Interior Ministry, which oversees Russia’s police force, said that Nemtsov was killed by four shots in the back from a passing car as he was walking over a bridge just outside the Kremlin shortly after midnight.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn’t hurt.
Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian prime minister now also in the opposition, said organizers of Saturday’s rally have decided to stage a demonstration in the center of the capital to commemorate Nemtsov.
