Boris Nemtsov, a leading Russian opposition leader has been shot dead in Moscow.

Police say the 55-year-old former deputy prime minister was gunned down while walking with a woman near the Kremlin late on Friday night.

He is said to have been shot four times in the back by several people who got out of a car.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has condemned Nemtsov’s murder which comes a few weeks after he gave an interview saying he feared for his life because of his stance against the conflict in Ukraine.

He was also in the process of promoting what’s expected to be a major anti-war rally in the Russian capital this weekend.

After the Soviet Union’s collapse and during Boris Yeltsin’s time in charge at the Kremlin, Nemtsov made his name as a western orientated free market reformer.

He co-founded the anti-Putin movement Solidarity, with chess champion Garry Kasparov, in an effort to unite various opposition groups.

Four years ago, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail after