Russian Embassy Street Named For Boris Nemtsov, Putin Critic

The city council of Washington D.C. voted unanimously Tuesday to rename a portion of the street the Russian embassy sits on after Boris Nemtsov, the murdered outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The council passed the Boris Nemtsov Plaza Designation Act which goes into effect on an “emergency basis” until it passes permanent legislation on the matter. The Act renames a portion of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the embassy.

The opposition leader’s daughter, Zhanna Nemtsov traveled to the U.S. capital in December to advocate for the change on behalf of her father.

“The current Russian political regime wants to eradicate the memory of my father, since it believes, correctly, that symbols are important and that they can potentially facilitate and inspire change,” she told the council, according to the BBC. “For now, we cannot do it in Russia because of unprecedented resistance on the part of the Russian authorities. But we have a chance to do it here - and here, it will be very difficult to dismantle.”

Boris Nemtsov was a liberal politician in the 1990s and vocal critic of Putin, accusing him of embezzlement ahead of the Sochi Olympics and calling his regime authoritarian and undemocratic. Boris Nemtsov was killed in 2015 near the Kremlin in Moscow after he was shot in the back several times. The murder came two days before a large peace rally that would in part protest Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. He was 55 when he was killed.

Last year five men from Chechnya were convicted of killing Boris Nemtsov, but his family believes the person who called for the murder is still out there.

Some Russian politicians were miffed by the decision.

“[U.S. authorities] specifically want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian Embassy,” Vladimir Zhirinovsky told Russia’s Interfax News Service.