Moscow authorities are considering moving a plaque honoring Boris Nemtsov to the entranceway of the building where he lived, a day after nationalist activists removed it from the murdered politician’s home.
Members of the pro-Kremlin SERB movement on Monday took down the plaque from Nemtsov’s house in central Moscow, less than a week after it was installed there by volunteers. SERB said it had given the makeshift nameplate to local authorities.
A source in the city administration told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that the installation of the plaque had been in “violation of the law.” “But a conflict can be avoided by placing a memorial plaque inside the entranceway,” the source told Interfax.
Since Nemtsov’s murder near the Kremlin on Feb. 27, 2015, opposition activists and volunteers have called for a memorial site to honor the former deputy prime minister and fierce Kremlin critic. Moscow authorities have refused, citing regulations which require ten years to pass after a person’s death. Another rule allows for a memorial plaque to be installed after a period of two years at the person’s workplace.
Interfax cited Moscow's Deputy Mayor Leonid Pechatnikov as saying that the nameplate would have been removed sooner or later because it had been installed illegally.
Asked why officials did not remove the plaque sooner, he said law enforcement had “simply not made it to the house."
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