Several thousand people gathered in central Moscow on Sunday for a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin in the highest-profile assassination of Vladimir Putin’s rule.

The demonstrators carried placards reading “He Fought for a Free Russia” and “He Died for Russia’s Future,” while another 2,500-3,000 people, some wrapped in Ukrainian flags, marched in the second city of Saint Petersburg, AFP journalists said.