The Yekaterinburg Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Land Regulation (Glavarkhitektura) on June 15 issued methodological recommendations for the design and placement of memorial plaques on building facades, according to the local outlet Vecherniye Vedomosti.
The document states that plaques of the 'Last Address' project, which commemorates victims of political repression, are being installed without authorization. Officials listed several objections: the plaques are too small and their text illegible; they are installed in groups, creating an 'excess of additional facade elements' that disrupts the architectural appearance of buildings; and their placement, in the city hall's view, 'is random in nature.'
The recommendations are not binding. However, department director Ruslan Gabdrakhmanov ordered the architecture and urban environment departments to follow them. It is unclear whether this will affect plaques already installed. Currently, 27 'Last Address' plaques are in place in Yekaterinburg, said Tatyana Znak, chair of the regional Association of Victims of Political Repression.
This is not the first time Russian authorities have obstructed memorials to the repressed. In August 2025, the prosecutor's office, acting on a tip, demanded the removal of three 'Last Address' plaques from a building at Pervomaiskaya, 43 in Yekaterinburg, and activists postponed installing another after a call from the prosecutor's office, according to the outlet 7x7. Over the past three months, the Vorkuta city hall dismantled a monument to Gulag victims, unknown persons in Novosibirsk tore a plaque from a foundation stone commemorating the repressed, and authorities in Tomsk destroyed an entire memorial, the outlet reported.