Duma candidate Dmitry Gudkov and journalist Timofey Dzyadko have filed a petition with the Moscow’s mayor’s office to have a plaque installed on Moscow’s Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge in commemoration of oppositionist Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered there. The petition attracted nearly 30,000 signatures and took up 724 pieces of paper.
It is hoped that the 70 x 50 centimeter (approximately 27.5 x 19.6 inch) stone plaque will bear the inscription: “In everlasting memory of Boris Nemtsov who was killed at this location on February 27, 2015.”
Boris Nemtsov was one of the most prominent Russian politicians of the 1990s and 2000s. After serving as governor of the Nizhniy Novgorod region from 1991-1997, he was at one time vetted as President Boris Yeltsin’s potential successor. Nemtsov was also a long-time leader of the liberal Soyus Pravykh Sil (Union of Right Forces).
In the 2000s, Nemtsov became an opposition leader and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He authored several works on corruption in Russia and the enrichment of Putin’s inner circle.
Nemtsov was shot and killed within several yards of the Kremlin.