Story highlights The honorary renaming is meant to send a message to Russia and the world

A DC council member was approached to take up the bill by Sens. Rubio and Coons

This wouldn't be the first time a Russian Embassy's address was so renamed

Washington (CNN) New legislation championed by two DC Council members would symbolically change the name of a small stretch of road outside the Russian Embassy to that of Boris Nemtsov, a pro-democracy Russian dissident who was assassinated in Moscow in 2015.

The honorary renaming is meant to send a message to Russia and the rest of the world, according to council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who cosponsored the bill with Chairman Phil Mendelson. The bill would symbolically rename the stretch of Wisconsin Avenue to 1 Boris Nemtsov Plaza, adding that name to the street sign. The measure is scheduled to get its first hearing next week.

"We want to show solidarity with folks around the world who really make this extraordinary effort under adverse circumstances to try to bring democracy to their people," Cheh told CNN. "This gentleman was a physician, a statesman, a really important character in Russia and a proponent of democracy, and he was assassinated in his role."

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Nemtsov was a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Cheh was approached to take up the legislation by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Chris Coons, D-Delaware, who had previously introduced similar legislation in Congress to honorarily rename the street, which was unsuccessful.

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