On August 24 the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO conducted a protest action against the unlawful naming of a Moscow street after Akhmad Kadyrov.

Over 20 representatives of the YABLOKO party gathered at Novopushkinskaya Square at 12pm. The activists held slogans “The law should be the same for everyone,” “Shantsev (Ed. Moscow official) announced a jihad against Muscovites,” “We don’t need a Kadyrov street” and also carried YABLOKO banners.

Initially the action was to have been held by the Pushkin monument in accordance with an agreement with the authorities of the Central District of Moscow. However, militia for no reason banned the holding of a meeting by the monument. Moreover, an unpleasant incident took place owing to one of the militia people: the militia attempted for no legal reason to arrest a photo-correspondent from the Commersant newspaper. Consequently the activists decided to hold the meeting at the opposite site of the square.

The protesters presented a symbol of “modern Moscow” – a girl dressed in a city map given new topographic names during the protest action, such as “the Militants’ Ally”, “Shamil Basayev prospect”, “Beria Prospect”, “Dzerzhinsky square”, “Aslan Maskhadov street” and “Budanov crossing”.

“Once again the Moscow bureaucracy demonstrated that that they don’t care about the opinion of Muscovites! They are ready to violate legislation of Moscow (streets may named after a public figure only ten years after his/her death to please the Kremlin,” said Deputy Head of YABLOKO Sergei Mitrokhin.

“We grieve the death of Akhmad Kadyrov and condemn his assassinators. However, we think that it is unbecoming to grant such honour to a person responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people,” stressed Mitrokhin.

The Moscow branch of YABLOKO has already forwarded a complaint to the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office. The Moscow YABLOKO is considering the holding of a local referendum in the Moscow district of Butovo to abolish the decision of the Moscow authorities.

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