Nemtsov ally to sue reporters for story about profiting off Nemtsov’s name

Opposition activist Ilya Yashin says he will file a police complaint against Izvestia correspondents Alexander Kondratyev and Pavel Chernyshov, as well as the newspaper’s publisher, Aram Gabrelyanov. Yashin is accusing the three men of forging his identity on an application to Russia’s patent office on a request to register a trademark named after the slain politician Boris Nemtsov, presumably to make it look like Yashin is trying to profit off Nemtsov’s name.

On April 2, Izvestia published a story about two trademark applications for the brands “Nemtsovka” and “Nemtsov-bridge.” The patent applications allegedly bear the names of Yashin and Maxim Katz, another opposition figure. The Izvestia article notes that these applications could have been filed without the consent or knowledge of either Yashin or Katz. The documents also misidentify Yashin and Katz as independent entrepreneurs.

On his blog, Katz suggested that Izvestia’s correspondents may have filed the patent applications themselves, in order to write the article. Roughly two dozen other media outlets later republished the story.

Izvestia’s text was carefully crafted. Gabrelyanov is clearly afraid of lawsuits and made sure to use very precise language. It’s unlikely that it will be possible to get him or his accomplices for libel.

Ilya Yashin

• Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed in Moscow on February 27. At the site of his murder (a bridge not far from the Kremlin), Muscovites erected a shrine of flowers and other items in honor of Nemtsov. Late at night on March 28, unknown men cleared out the flowers and removed the makeshift memorial. The next day, people came back to the bridge and reconstituted the shrine, led in part by Katz, whom several Russian media outlets later accused of earning money on the flowers mourners brought to the bridge.