‘Two years ago, on the night of the 27th of February 2015, in the centre of Moscow, a hundred yards from the Kremlin, Boris Nemtsov was shot dead. It was a political assassination, not the first in post-communist Russia, and there’s no guarantee that it will be the last. The responsibility for creating an atmosphere of hatred towards any dissenting opinion clearly rests with the Russian authorities. It is that hatred which results in the murders.

On 26th February, on the eve of the second anniversary of the assassination, the ‘Boris Nemtsov March’ will take place in Moscow. Its participants wish to honour the memory of Boris Nemtsov, to demand that not only the killers but also those responsible for organizing this and other political assassinations in Russia are punished, to demand the freeing of political prisoners, an end to the persecution of dissidents, and the establishment of hard and fast guarantees for civil and political rights in the country.

The March will go from Strastnoi Boulevard along the Boulevard ring road, and then along Sakharov Prospekt (almost to where it crosses the Sadovaya ring road).

Participants are to assemble between 13.00 and 14.00 p.m. at the start of Strastnoi Boulevard (metro stations Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya, Chekovskaya). Start 14.00.

The March’s organizing committee has agreed the route and time with the Moscow authorities.

International Memorial Society calls upon all those who are not indifferent to Russia’s future to join the March or to participate in actions in memory of Boris Nemtsov in other cities.’

Board of the International Memorial Society

Translated by Mary McAuley