Saint Petersburg: hundreds rally against naming bridge after Kadyrov

A rally against naming a bridge in the Krasnoselsky District of Saint Petersburg in honour of Akhmat Kadyrov, the first president of the ChechenRepublic, was held today in the Marsovo Pole. Akhmat Kadyrov and his son Ramzan have nothing to do with Saint Petersburg, this is the main protesters' argument against the naming of the bridge.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 30, the Saint Petersburg Toponymic Commission voted in favour of naming the bridge over the Dudergof Canal after Akhmat Kadyrov. On the same day, the website "Change.org" posted a petition against the above naming. As of 11:00 p.m. on June 6, the petition gained 78,519 signatures.

As noted in a conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" by the organizers of the above rally, Maxim Reznik and Olga Galkina, the members of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg, they had expected that the rally would be visited by 200 people; however, the action proved to be much stronger.

"I am against naming the bridge after Kadyrov for two reasons: Firstly, Akhmat Kadyrov has nothing to do with Saint Petersburg; and secondly, the naming is imposed on us demonstratively, roughly, impudently, and with contempt for the opinion of the society," Maxim Reznik said in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.