Press Release, 3.03.2020

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent appeals to the Mayors of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Sochi, as well as to the Governors of St. Petersburg, the Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl regions and the Krasnodar Territory with a proposal to give one of the objects in these cities the name of Boris Nemtsov.

Nemtsov was Vice Prime Minister of the Russian government, he made a significant contribution to the process of formation and development of state institutions in our country, and also played a prominent role in the political life of Russia, run the appeals.

The Chairman of Yabloko proposes to the Mayor of Moscow to rename the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge where the politician was shot dead on February 27, 2015, into the Nemtsov Bridge.

Yabloko’s appeal to the Governor of St.Petersburg proposes that the name of Boris Nemtsov can be assigned to one of the new streets, squares or avenues of St. Petersburg.

In 1991-1997, Boris Nemtsov was Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, his childhood and youth passed in Nizhny Novgorod, and his political career also began there. So Nikolai Rybakov suggests that the Mayor of the city and the Governor of the region should consider renaming Lenin Square to Nemtsov Square.

According to Yabloko, a street or square in his name should also appear in Yaroslavl, where Nemtsov worked as a deputy of the regional Duma from 2013 to 2015.

In addition, a memorial plaque should be installed at the address Gorky Street 7, in Sochi, where Boris Nemtsov spent the first years of his life. The chairman of Yabloko invited the regional and the city authorities to also consider renaming Voikov Street or Cooperative Square in Sochi after Boris Nemtsov.

“Boris Nemtsov devoted his life to Russia and died trying to save our country from war. However, the memory of him has been immortalised only abroad – in Washington, Vilnius, Kiev and recently in Prague,” Nikolai Rybakov says. “We believe that this is unfair, and we invite the authorities of the five cities with which Nemtsov’s life was connected to correct this.”

According to Rybakov, this can be done at the expense of “numerous streets of Lenin and other Bolshevik figures who should have no place in the toponymy of Russian cities”.