The lower house of the Russian parliament has rejected a lawmaker's proposal to hold a minute of silence honoring slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
Dmitry Gudkov, one of only a handful of opposition lawmakers left in the State Duma, which is dominated by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party, made the proposal on February 26, a day before the first anniversary of Nemtsov's killing.
Commenting on Gudkov's proposal, ultranationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that Duma deputies "stand up to commemorate someone only when the country's president announces national mourning."
Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and vocal opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015.
The suspected triggerman was an officer in the security forces of Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Four other Chechens also face trial in the case.
But who ordered the killing remains unknown. Nemtsov's family and other supporters have slammed the office probe as ineffective.
