Government of Russia

"We love and respect this Russia that gave the world many achievements and culture, but are concerned for this Russia where such killings happen," President Rosen Plenveliev has said.

The comment of Bulgaria's head of state was dedicated to the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov who was shot dead last week.

Local officials in the Russian capital Moscow have refused to allow a mourning march in memory of oppositioner Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday evening.

Aleksey Mayorov, a municipal public safety official, says only the government is currently able to respond to a demand by opposition activists who wish to hold the rally in Moscow's central area.

Murdered Russian oppositioner Boris Nemtsov was working on a report allegedly containing evidence of Russia's direct involvement in Ukraine's unrest, according to Nemtsov's fellow colleagues.

Ilya Yashin, an activist who had close ties to Nemtsov, told Ekho Moskvy radio he had spoken to Nemtsov two days before his killing on Thursday evening.

Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in Moscow late on February 27, was well-known as an oppositional leader and one of the main figures to harshly criticize Russia's politics as led by President Vladimir Putin.

Bulgaria strongly condemns the murder of the prominent Russian oposition leader and former Deputy PM Boris Nemtsov, the top Bulgarian diplomat Daniel Mitov has said.

Mitov has extended his condolence to Nemtsov's relatives in a statement dated Saturday morning.

The death of Russian opposition politician and former Deputy PM Boris Nemtsov resembles a contract killing, Russian authorities believe.

This comes after Nemtsov was shot dead on Friday, shorly before midnight local time (20:40 GMT).

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is now personally in control of the investigation, according to his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russian opposition politician and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov has been shot dead in central Moscow.

Nemtsov was shot four times in the back by an unknown attacker, according to a law enforcement source, as cited by the Interfax news agency.

The killer is said to have escaped in a car.

The incident happened at around 23:40 local time near the Kremlin.

MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Greece's stance on sanctions on Wednesday, saying the country understood how counter-productive their use was in dealing with Russia.

The United States would violate a number of international agreements if it started supplying weapons to the Ukrainian military at the request of the government in Kiev, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Monday.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday delayed the implementation of a new round of sanctions against Russia to give a chance to a fresh peace initiative led by France and Germany.