Press Release, 25.02.2021

Photo: Yabloko at the Moscow March in Memory of Boris Nemtsov in 2017 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

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. The commemorative action will take place in Barnaul on Freedom Square, on 28 February. The action will begin at 14:00.

Applications from other regional branches of the party, that tried to get the permissions for processions or rallies, were turned down by regional authorities. Thus, under the pretext of coronavirus restrictions, regional authorities banned commemorative marches and rallies in Arkhangelsk, Novgorod, Vladivostok, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Ivanovo, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orel, Petrozavodsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Rostov-on-Don, Smolensk, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl.

The regional branch of the party in the Sverdlovsk region appealed against the refusal in court, but the judges sided with the officials.

Appeals of Yabloko branches in the Maritime Territory, Pskov, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl regions against the decisions to ban memorial actions are still being considered by courts.

Also, the Novgorod, Karelia and Rostov-on-Don branches of Yabloko plan to challenge the bans on memorial actions in court.

Members of a number of regional branches, including those that were refused approval of a rally or a procession, will honor the memory of Boris Nemtsov with single pickets and other memorial events. On the anniversary of the murder of the politician, pickets will be held in Astrakhan, Vladivostok, Ivanovo, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Petrozavodsk, Ulan-Ude and Elista.

In Omsk and Cheboksary, the leadership of the regional branches of the party will lay flowers and light candles at the memorials to the victims of political repression, and the Chairman of the Sverdlovsk branch of Yabloko will take part in the memory watch and a round table dedicated to the life of Boris Nemtsov. In Voronezh, Yabloko activists will come to the memorial plaque of Galina Starovoitova, another murdered opposition politician, to honour the memory of Boris Nemtsov and all the victims of political murders, and will also organise a commemoration meeting.

In connection with the coronavirus restrictions, the organisers of the Boris Nemtsov memorial action in Moscow, including Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, did not apply for the traditional procession, but called on the Mayor’s Office asking the Mayor not to put up obstacles to the citizens wishing to lay flowers at the place of the politician’s murder on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge.

A similar appeal was sent to the Governor of St. Petersburg. There, the laying of flowers in memory of Boris Nemtsov can take place by the Solovetsky Stone monument in Troitskaya Square. On behalf of Yabloko, an appeal to the Governor was signed by Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko and MP of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly.