A plaque installed in honor of murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has been removed less than a week after it was put up on his house in central Moscow, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Tuesday.
“It is not known who removed it,” the Ekho Moskvy radio station said, posting photographs from Facebook of the building without the plaque. “No official statements were made on this matter.”
The Facebook user who posted the photos, Tatiana Tikhonovich, included a screenshot of a post made by pro-Kremlin activists who claimed to have removed the plaque early Tuesday.
The post, authored by Gosha Tarasevich, claims that members of the pro-Kremlin movement “SERB” removed the makeshift plaque and turned it over to the municipal Interior Ministry branch. Gosha Tarasevich is known as one of the “SERB” movement’s leaders.
City officials moved to dismantle the plaque after it was mounted late last week on the house where Nemtsov lived before his murder on Feb. 27, 2015. Authorities argued it was installed illegally, while opposition politicians said its installation was a lawful citizens’ initiative.
The Moscow Mayor’s Office reportedly rejected a September 2016 petition with 30,000 signatures asking for a small plaque commemorating Nemtsov to be erected on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge. Nemtsov was gunned down while walking home in the evening across the bridge next to the Kremlin.
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