To be fair, the United States started it.

On Jan. 10, the City Council in Washington changed the name of the block of Wisconsin Avenue where the Russian Embassy sits to 1 Boris Nemtsov Plaza. Mr. Nemtsov, a charismatic opposition politician and fierce Kremlin critic, was fatally shot near the Kremlin walls in February 2015.

Although five Chechen men were jailed for the crime, Mr. Nemtsov’s family and friends, some of whom lobbied for the street name, believe that the real mastermind has never been publicly identified. The change received a sympathetic response in Washington, especially after the Russian meddling in the 2016 American presidential election.

Any change in Moscow still faces hurdles. Even if the commission recommends the name change, it will need the approval of city hall. The Kremlin is likely to have a say, and given its desire to improve relations with the United States, it might well scrap the idea.

The chance that the city might consider a change, however, unleashed a tsunami of alternative suggestions and commentary on social media sites.

They included a slew of streets and alleys named after foreign leaders who have clashed with the United States: the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un; Fidel Castro of Cuba; and Arab leaders whom the Russians consider to have been murdered under the auspices of the United States, like Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.