Russian opposition Leader Nemtsov assassinated

(Vatican Radio) Western leaders and fellow dissidents have reacted with shock after a leading Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in Moscow. The 55-year-old former deputy prime minister was gunned down while walking with a woman near the Kremlin. 

Listen to this report by Stefan Bos

His passionate voice will be missed. His body was seen lying on a bridge near the walls of the Kremlin. 

Nemtsov was shot down just after midnight local time, near the walls of the Kremlin. The Interior Ministry said he was walking with a Ukrainian female acquaintance when a car carrying several men drove up. At least one of the unidentified assailants shot him four times in the back, officials said. 

He apparently died immediately, the woman was unhurt. Russian police said they were still searching for the attackers. The assassination happened just hours after Nemtsov harshly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin on a local radio station. He told Ekho Mosckvy radio that Putin was plunging Russia into crisis by his "mad, aggressive and deadly policy of war against Ukraine." 

Nemtsov also said the country needs political reform as power is currently concentrated around one person who he claimed "rules forever" warned that "this would lead to a catastrophe". 

He was shot and killed just a day before a planned protest against the government. Nemtsov had been working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the pro-Russian separatist rebellion that has raged in eastern Ukraine since April, killing some 5,800 people. 

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko called him a "personal friend" and "a bridge" between the two countries. Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook website page that he hopes "the killers will be punished". Those sentiments were shared by Western leaders including U.S. President Barrack Obama who urged Russia's government to perform "a prompt, impartial and transparent investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice." 

His death also ended a life of politics: He was a deputy prime minister who made his name as a Western oriented free market reformer following the collapse of the Soviet Union under than leader Boris Yeltsin. He was once seen as a potential successor of Yeltsin, but in the end Putin received the top job.

Yet Nemtsov didn't give up.  

He made clear his support for the anti-Putin movement Solidarity, with chess champion Garry Kasparov. Nemtsov was sentenced to 15 days in jail four years ago after taking part in a New Year’s Eve opposition rally.     

The activist always realized someone was looking over his shoulder. Last month he told Russian media his 86-year-old mother was afraid that Putin could have him killed for his opposition activities. 

Putin has now offered his condolences and ordered Russia's top law enforcement chiefs to "personally oversee" the probe of Nemtsov's killing. 

In the words of Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Yelena Panfilova: "It wasn't just a shot in Nemtsov's back, it was a shot in the back of Russia."