Boris Nemtsov’s last tweet of his life was a call for people to come out into the streets — to join the march.
Two hours later, he was shot several times in the back right by the Kremlin, and Borya (a familiar form of Boris) would never tweet again.
So even without his call, let’s understand how important it is to come out for the march in his memory. The Nemtsov memorial march is also a march demanding a normal country and a normal state, where contract killings resembling public executions do not happen.
A country where, on the eve of the anniversary of a crime that shocked everyone, we are not told that the main suspect—despite living quite openly in Russia—will not even appear in court, but will simply “submit a written statement”?
People need to come. Those people behind the wall only have one system of measurement: whether the number of people in the streets scares them. If they’re scared, there will be an investigation. If they’re very scared, the real masterminds will be punished. If there are few people and they’re not scared, there will be no investigation. And if people stay silent and do not come out into the streets at all, then it means they can go on gunning people down.
So not coming is not an option. There is no such option.
Tomorrow, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., on February 27, the anniversary of the murder. Participants will gather from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Strastnoy Boulevard.
The route begins at Strastnoy Boulevard, behind the Rossiya cinema. The nearest metro stations are Chekhovskaya, Tverskaya, and Pushkinskaya.
For those wishing to lay flowers at the site of the murder: the bridge is open, and no one will stop you from doing so at any time of day.