Remembered with love MEMORY has long been the subject of fierce and often deadly ideological battles in Russia. Those who control the past also control the present. Following the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader, on a bridge by the Kremlin, a fight for his memory, and for the Russian flag, is taking place. In Soviet times, purged Communist Party members were excised from photographs as though they never existed. Now it seems the Kremlin is trying similarly to airbrush Mr Nemtsov.
First Kremlin spin-doctors tried to divert attention from Mr Nemtsov’s murder to the “sudden” disappearance of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. Ten days later, Mr Putin re-emerged triumphantly and celebrated the anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea at the spot where Mr Nemtsov died. A frenzied crowd yelled “Ross-i-ya”, as if that could quash memories of Mr Nemtsov and his opposition to war in Ukraine.
In the middle of the night on March 27th, a month after Mr Nemtsov’s murder, the authorities cleared the bridge of flowers and photographs. Thanks to Mr Nemtsov’s friends and…
