As for commemorating Nemtsov’s memory, there is supposedly no public consensus, so nothing should be commemorated, Moscow City Hall decided.
I immediately remembered the picket we organized back in YABLOKO (a Russian liberal political party) against “Kadyrov Street” in 2004.
Back then, it was simply impossible to name a street after someone who had died less than 10 years earlier. Now there is a proviso allowing an exception by decision of the mayor or the president, but at the time it was an outright ban.
There’s even a funny little note about me in the press release:
It wasn’t just all of Moscow — all of Russia was strongly against it. And yet they named it anyway.
In the first few years, I remember, people often hung a sign reading “Street of the Pskov Paratroopers” over the “Kadyrov Street” sign. It was a popular slogan in general; people even carried it at rallies:
I won’t even get started on Hugo Chávez Street:
What “public consensus” are we even talking about here? This was lobbied through by crook Sechin, because he had some kind of dealings with Venezuela’s oil people — fruitless, of course, like everything at Rosneft.
And with Nemtsov, it’s simple. Commemorating his memory also means remembering that on the night of February 27, 2015, one of the opposition’s leaders was shot in the back and killed by representatives of the authorities. Who would agree to be reminded of that now?
Still, it’s important to remember that the main memorial is in our heads. We must not forget ourselves, and sooner or later we’ll transfer that memory into marble and plaques as well. That’s just a technical matter.