Russian police make arrests at memorials on tenth anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s murder
Police in cities across Russia arrested multiple people on Thursday at memorials marking the tenth anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination.
In Moscow, residents paid tribute to the late opposition figure at a makeshift memorial maintained by volunteers on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, the site near the Kremlin where Nemtsov was shot dead on February 27, 2015. Others lay flowers outside of Nemtsov’s home.
The British, French, Italian, German, and E.U. ambassadors to Moscow also visited Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge to pay their respects. Eyewitnesses reported the presence of police and municipal workers, who discarded flowers and pictures left at the memorial site throughout the day.
Police even shut down pedestrian access to the bridge in the evening, citing a “special operation,” while municipal workers dismantled a memorial plaque dedicated to Nemtsov. Shortly after, someone wrote the late politician’s name in its place. Activists managed to hold a moment of silence at 11:30 p.m.
In St. Petersburg, the local Yabloko party office hosted a Nemtsov photo exhibition and activists organized a screening of the documentary The Man Who Was Too Free.
According to OVD-Info, police arrested people paying tribute to Nemtsov in Moscow, Barnaul, Ufa, and other Russian cities throughout the day on Thursday. At least three journalists from RusNews were among the detained, all of whom were later released without charges.
OVD-Info also reported that police arrested minors at memorial events in the cities of Yekaterinburg and Kazan. The head of the Yabloko party’s Yekaterinburg youth branch, Ivan Lukin, was arrested after laying flowers at the city’s monument to the Decembrists. He was later released without charges. A teenager arrested in Kazan was also released, but authorities charged his mother with a misdemeanor for “neglecting parental duties.”
Three activists arrested and held overnight in Kazan also face misdemeanor charges of violating protest regulations.
Municipal workers in Moscow continued to remove flowers from Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge overnight on Friday. However, efforts to partially restore the makeshift memorial to Nemtsov continued during the day.