Russia’s Supreme Court has ordered the closure of the country’s oldest human rights organization Memorial International, which is a watershed in Vladimir Putin’s suppression of independent ideas.
The court ruled that the memorial must be closed in accordance with Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” legislation, which targets dozens of non-governmental organizations and media deemed critical of the government.
The memorial was established in the late 1980s to record political repression in the Soviet Union and to establish a database of victims Great horror And Gulag camp. The Memorial Center for Human Rights, a sister organization dedicated to the rights of political prisoners and other causes, is also facing liquidation for “defending terrorism and extremism.”
The closure of the Memorial International marked a turning point in modern Russian history, as propagating the crimes of Soviet leaders such as Joseph Stalin had become taboo 30 years after the opening of the secret government archives after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although not fully seeking to return to the Soviet past, Putin has become very sensitive to any criticism of it by groups including the memorial.
Genri Reznik, a lawyer representing the memorial on Tuesday, called the decision to close it “political,” adding that the hearing reminded him of the Soviet performance trials in the 1930s.
This decision also follows this year’s continued attacks on Russian civil society that led to the imprisonment of opposition leaders such as Alexei Navalny, famous activists and journalists fleeing the country, and non-governmental organizations and media institutions in Russia as “foreign agents”. “It was made after being fined and closed under the leadership.” And “unpopular” laws.
Judge Alla Nazarova ordered the closure of the organization on the grounds that it “repeatedly” and “seriously” violated the Russian Foreign Agents Act. The memorial said it was politically motivated, but still claimed to comply with this rule.
She said that the decision would close “Memorial International Association for History, Education, Charity and Human Rights, its regional branches and other structural units.”
In defending the organization, Reznick said: “The Memorial Association promotes the health of the country. Now, removing this from the history of the country means contributing to the idea that the country is always right.”
The Interfax news agency quoted a lawyer at the memorial as saying that it would appeal in Russia and the European Court of Human Rights.
Russian prosecutors described the organization as a geopolitical weapon used by foreign governments to deprive modern Russians of their pride in Soviet achievements.These arguments are related to Uses of the Kremlin Regarding Soviet history as a social cohesion point, and reinterpreting the key historical moments of confrontation with European countries.
Alexei Zafiyarov said: “It is obvious that the memorial uses the theme of political reprisals in the 20th century to hypocritically portray the Soviet Union as a terrorist country, and to whitewash and act as a Nazi criminal with the blood of Soviet citizens. Defense.” At the hearing, a representative of the Russian Attorney General’s Office.
“Why do we, as descendants of the victors, have to see the redress of the traitors and the Nazis? …maybe because someone has paid for it. This is how the memorial is so fiercely trying to deny its status as a foreign agent The real reason for this,” he continued.
On Tuesday, about 100 supporters of the organization gathered outside the courtroom. Many people chanted “shame” after the sentence was pronounced. The police arrested several people.
The leadership of the memorial had hoped that the broad public support for the organization would prevent it from closing. In previous hearings, the organization submitted more than 127,000 signatures in support of the organization, as well as the testimony of those who discovered the fate of their relatives due to the Gulag and other records found in the memorial.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wrote: “The long-term activities of the memorial have been aimed at restoring historical justice, keeping the memories of hundreds of thousands of victims in the years of repression, and preventing this from happening now and in the future. Incident.” Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov (Dmitry Muratov) in a joint statement last month. They called on the prosecutor to recall their claim against the memorial.
The purge of the Russian opposition and independent organizations continued until the end of the year. Last week, a BBC Russian reporter announced that he had fled the country after being named a “foreign agent” and realizing he was under surveillance, and that OVD-Info, a website that monitors arrests and court cases, was used as a “foreign agent” Blocked.” On Tuesday, two former coordinators of the Navalny National Political Network were also arrested on charges of extremism.
Natalya Estemirova’s daughter was a former memorial committee member who was murdered in Chechnya for human rights work in 2009. In response to the verdict, she wrote: “My mother always said:’No It’s worse than that.’ It turns out it can.”
