Issue and Opposition: Boris Nemtsov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia in the 1990s, was a physicist and a reformist leader who fell into Putin’s bad book because of his strong criticisms of the Russian President. Nemtsov was particularly critical of Putin’s administration for its support of the Ukrainian separatists in the Eastern part of the country. He began campaigning against Putin in 2011 and was instrumental in pointing to reports on the Kremlin’s initiatives in controlling parts of Ukraine. In addition, he strongly opposed the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Nemtsov was assassinated by shooters from the back near a bridge in Kremlin on February 27, 2015. Just days before his assassination, Nemtsov was in Moscow organizing a protest rally against Putin’s military interventions in Ukraine and the overall economic distress Russia was facing. Although five Chechnyan contract killers were later arrested based on their confessions, no other details such as their names were ever disclosed to the media and public. The US Republican Party led by Marco Rubio initiated a unique dilemma action.
Dilemma Action: In 2018, a one-block section of Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C., right outside of the Russian embassy, was renamed Boris Nemtsov Plaza. The Republican Party members such as Rubio justified the renaming by calling it a reminder to Putin that the USA would not tolerate Russia’s aggression against its dissenters.
Outcome: Putin’s government retaliated to this renaming by proposing a remaining of the US Embassy area as the “North American Dead End.” This initiative was led by Mikhail Degtyaryov, a member of the Duma and leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Renaming DC streets after Nemtsov is a replication of similar dilemma action tactics. For example, in the 1980s, Congress renamed an offshoot of Northwest DC’s 16th Street, which was the address of the then-Soviet Embassy, after Andrei Sakharov, a severe critic of Soviet Cold War politics. More replication of this tactic could be seen in other parts of the world such as India. West Bengal in India came under Communist rule in 1969, right after the Vietnam War, and identified with the ideologies of Northern Vietnam. After assuming power in West Bengal, one of the first things that the Communist Party did was rename the street on which the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata stood as Ho Chi Minh Sarani after the famous Vietnamese communist leader. The name of the street remained the same even after the fall of the communist rule in West Bengal in 2011. The main purpose of this tactic is to attract media attention, to troll and embarrass the opposition, and not really to accomplish any policy change or concession.