Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and former deputy prime minister who was an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on a bridge meters from the Kremlin in central Moscow on Friday. Laughing Conservative feels somewhat freaked out by this, having walked the same bridge many times during a stay in Moscow at the Kempinski Hotel which overlooks the Kremlin from the other side of the Moskva River. Don't be too quick to blame Putin: Numerous victims were being assassinated even then, mostly business rivals vying for power and territory, not unlike the Mexican drug cartels of today.
