Press Release, 13.11.2025

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov has sent an appeal to St.Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov demanding the installation of a memorial plaque at the site of the murder of St.Petersburg musician and anti-fascist Timur Kacharava, killed by neo-Nazis 20 years ago at the entrance to the central bookshop of the Bukvoed chain on Ligovsky Prospekt on 13 November 2005.

At that time, on leaving the bookshop, Timur and his friend Maxim Zgibay were attacked by a group of neo-Nazis, as a result of which Maxim was hospitalised with a traumatic brain injury and a stab wound to the chest, whilst Timur Kacharava, who received six stab wounds to the neck, died before the ambulance arrived.

Rybakov emphasises that the attack that led to the young man’s death became one of St.Petersburg’s most tragic events in the 2000s:

“For many years, people gathering at memorial events on the day of Timur’s murder have brought flowers, candles and portraits of the murdered young man to the shop windows. They left the inscription on the wall almost every year: ‘TIMUR, WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOU.’ However, this inscription was shortly painted over and the flowers were removed. I particularly note the importance of preserving this inscription as a memory of this tragic event. In a city that survived the terrible seige, people know better than anyone what fascism and Nazism are!” Rybakov noted.

It should be noted that Yabloko members come to the site of Timur’s murder every year (https://eng.yabloko.ru/st-petersburg-yabloko-honored-the-memory-of-anti-fascist-timur-kacharava-killed-by-neo-nazis-19-years-ago/) to honour his memory. The party has also appealed to St.Petersburg authorities several times (https://eng.yabloko.ru/yabloko-chairman-urged-st-petersburg-governor-to-put-a-memorial-plaque-at-the-site-of-murder-of-antifascist-timur-kacharava/) with an initiative to perpetuate the musician’s memory. This year, Rybakov once again explained this necessity in an episode of the programme “Petersburg Detective” on Channel 78, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the young man’s murder.