Moscow authorities have once again removed an improvised memorial near the Kremlin where Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in 2015.
The website OVD-Info, which tracks arrests in Russia, said on January 11 that representatives of Moscow's directorate for bridges, Gormost, and several men in civilian clothes took flowers and posters commemorating Nemtsov away from the bridge overnight.
According to OVD-Info, the men also seized backpacks containing documents, cash, and credit cards from two activists, Dmitry Kosachyov and Olga Avilonova, who were guarding the makeshift memorial.
Avilonova said she was physically assaulted by the men.
Nemtsov, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was fatally shot on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge on February 27, 2015.
Authorities regularly remove the makeshift memorial.
In May, an activist who was attacked while guarding the memorial died in the hospital.
Five suspects from Russia's North Caucasus region are being tried for Nemtsov's killing, but relatives and supporters believe those who carried out the contract-style killing were following orders from someone higher up.
The latest removal of the memorial came a day after the Washington, D.C., city council advanced plans to rename the street in front of the Russian Embassy to the United States after Nemtsov.