MOSCOW

A leading Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, who was also a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead in the Russian capital of Moscow late Friday, Moscow police said.

Nemtsov was shot a number of times by an unidentified assailant near a bridge close to the Red Square, police added.

According to Russian media, the opposition leader had received many death threats in the past, which he shared with Russian security officials.

He was also one of the organizers of a planned anti Ukraine war demonstration to be held in Moscow on March 1.

Nemtsov, 55, was deputy prime minister under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. He remained associated with the opposition Republican Party of Russia-People’s Freedom Party till the end, and was known for being a staunch critic of the Russian president and the Ukrainian conflict.

U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the “brutal murder” of the slain Russian opposition leader and called for an investigation into his death. Russian President Vladimir Putin also described the murder as “provocative conduct” and he believed that the killing was planned.