Yabloko leaders laid flowers to the place of murder of Boris Nemtsov on the Nemtsov Bridge

Press Release, 27.02.2021

Yabloko leaders Nikolai Rybakov and Grigory Yavlinsky laid flowers at the place of murder of Boris Nemtsov on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, which Muscovites have been calling the Nemtsov Bridge. The mourning action was also attended by the Deputy Chairman of the party Ivan Bolshakov, Moscow City Duma MP from Yabloko Yevgeny Bunimovich, member of the Federal Bureau of the party Kirill Goncharov, independent politician Vladimir Ryzhkov and Alexei Minyaylo, ex prisoner of the so-called the “Moscow case” when Muscovites were protesting against falsifications in the Moscow City Duma elections.

Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Chairman:

“The government is attacking the rights of citizens – political, civil, and social. The authorities violate not only the human right to freedom of speech, but also the right to life. And the Nemtsov Bridge by the walls of the Kremlin became a symbol of how people are murdered for their words and their position. And we know that people like Boris Nemtsov, [journalist and MP from Yabloko] Yuri Shchekochikhin, [journalist and human rights defender] Anna Politkovskaya, [Yabloko members and jouranlists] Larissa Yudina and Timur Kuashev, and [human rights defender] Natalya Estemirova and others were killed precisely for their political activities and their human rights activities, and we will seek an investigation and punishment of those responsible for these crimes.”

Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko founder:

“The assassination of Boris Nemtsov is one of the most terrible and most obvious political assassinations of recent times. It happened just a hundred meters away from the Kremlin. So far, the investigation has not led either to the identification of the customers, or to the explanation of the motives, and even the perpetrators who were found are doubtful. This is because President Vladimir Putin is politically responsible for the murder. Until the murder of Boris Nemtsov is solved and the motives and customers are revealed, it will be a bleeding wound on the body of Russian society.”

In St. Petersburg, Yabloko members, headed by Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the party, laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone – a memorial to the victims of political repression. Similar actions took place in Vologda, Tula, Omsk, Stavropol, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don and Cheboksary. In Nizhny Novgorod, Yabloko party activists laid flowers at the temporary memorial to Boris Nemtsov in Teatralnaya Square.

Boris Vishnevsky, MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg

After the refusal to approve commemorative marches and rallies, members of the Chelyabinsk and the Ivanovo branches of Yabloko held commemorative actions in the so-called guide parks [the areas where small rallies do not require permissions from the authorities] of the capitals of their regions. A rally for freedom and against repression was held on the embankment of the Gzen River in Novgorod. Single pickets and other memorial events are held by Yabloko activists in Astrakhan, Vladivostok, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Elista and Yaroslavl today.

Earlier, regional authorities in 21 Russian regions refused to give permissions for Yabloko’s actions in memory of Boris Nemtsov. Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot six times in the back and in the head on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge on the evening of 27 February, 2015.  Only the Altai branch of Yabloko managed to get a permission for a limited number of participants – up to 100 people – in Barnaul.  The commemorative action will take place in Barnaul on Freedom Square, on 28 February. The action will begin at 14:00. Yabloko Сhairman Nikolai Rybakov will take part in the rally.