Events to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov will be held in 57 cities in Russia and across the world on Saturday.
In Moscow, a rally ?€” expected to be attended by 50,000 people ?€” will start at 2 p.m. at Strastnoi Bulvar and finish at Prospekt Akademika Sakharova. The organizers of the rally obtained permission for the event from the city authorities.
St.Petersburg residents will gather at 2 p.m. in the city center to participate in an anniversary event, also approved by the authorities.
Events in Nemtsov's honor approved by the authorities will be also held in the Russian cities of Kazan, Samara, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg and a number of other cities.
The Arkhangelsk authorities in northern Russia rejected a request to hold an event in his honor.
The residents of Kaliningrad were also deprived of the possibility to arrange a memorial event, as city authorities claimed there was no space available on the date for such an event.
In Moscow, City Hall rejected the route taken by the silent rally held following Nemtsov's killing and proposed an alternative route.
Nemtsov's death will be commemorated in a number of foreign cities, including Washington, Warsaw, New York, Berlin, Cologne, Prague, London, Rome and many others, according to a list published on the Facebook page of the event.
In Ukraine's Kiev the rally will take place on the Maidan (Independence Square). The organizers also announced a picket in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev, the Interfax news agency reported.
Opposition leader and former prime minister Nemtsov was gunned down on Feb. 27 while walking across the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge just outside the Kremlin wall.