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Kremlin says it’s up to US authorities to rename street after Nemtsov

Five individuals were arrested on suspicion of murdering the politician: Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the decision of city authorities in Washington DC to rename a street outside the Russian embassy in honor of late Russian politician Boris Nemtsov comes amid the poor relationship between Russia and the United States.

"I would leave this without any comment, only stressing that this is a prerogative of the city authorities as bilateral relations between the two countries still leave much to be desired, mildly speaking," Peskov told reporters.

On Tuesday, Washington DC’s city council passed a bill on renaming the block in front of the Russian embassy in honor of Nemtsov. Vladimir Kara-Murza, who chairs the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, told TASS the bill was backed unanimously in the first reading and a speedy legislative process will take place to make sure it will be officially named once the third anniversary of Nemtsov’s death rolls around on February 27.

Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister under then-President Boris Yeltsin, co-chairman of the Parnas party and lawmaker from the Yaroslavl regional legislature, was gunned down in downtown Moscow on February 27, 2015.

Five individuals were arrested on suspicion of murdering the politician: Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev. In July 2017, the convicted perpetrators received sentences ranging from 11 to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony.

According to investigators, Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer of the Chechen Sever (or North), is the mastermind and organizer of the murder. Mukhudinov was charged in absentia. He has been on an international wanted list since November 2015. A criminal case against him is being investigated separately.