Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, a key critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in Moscow early Saturday, just a day before a planned protest against Putin's rule. A spokesman for Russia's equivalent of the FBI told NBC News that somebody in a car fired seven shots at Nemtsov as he strolled with a woman on a bridge near the Kremlin; four of those shots hit him. Putin, whom Nemtsov had relentlessly criticized, will personally oversee the investigation into his death, the Kremlin said. Nemtsov had assailed Putin for what he called his government's inefficiency, corruption and policy toward Ukraine, which has strained Russia's relationship with the West.
