OUTSPOKEN PUTIN OPPONENT KILLED IN MOSCOW

Chilling: AC360 looks back at Anthony Bourdain’s interview with Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down on the streets of Moscow today. – See more at cnn.com
Moscow (CNN)Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed Friday night in central Moscow, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation said in a statement Saturday, prompting immediate speculation from fellow opposition figures that the killing was targeted.

A deputy prime minister in the late 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, Nemtsov had been one of current President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics.

Putin quickly condemned the killing of Nemtsov and expressed his condolences to his family, the Kremlin said. Putin also ordered three law enforcement agencies to put together a task force to investigate the shooting, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

A criminal case has been opened for murder and weapons trafficking, the investigative committee said.

Nemtsov was a top official with the Republican Party of Russia/Party of People’s Freedom, a liberal opposition group. He had most recently been critical of the Kremlin’s handling of the Ukraine crisis.

Opposition leader Ilya Yashin said his friend had been working on a report about Russian troops and their involvement in Ukraine.