The Russian Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the dissolution of the Memorial NGO, pillar of the defense of the fight against repression in contemporary Russia and guardian of the memory of the victims of the gulag, sparking a wave of indignation in the West.
This measure comes at the end of a year marked by the growing repression of people, NGOs and media perceived as critics of President Vladimir Putin, in power for almost 22 years.
US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan denounced a “tragic attempt to suppress freedom of speech and erase history”, while French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, spoke of a “terrible loss for the Russian people”.
The German Foreign Ministry deemed this decision “more than incomprehensible”.
The Council of Europe has deplored “devastating news for civil society”.
“A power that is afraid of memory will never reach democratic maturity,” said the Memorial of the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz on Twitter, while the NGO Amnesty International denounced an “insult” to the memory of the victims of the Soviet camps.
At the request of the prosecution, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of “Memorial International, its regional branches and other components”.
In question, the non-respect of obligations resulting from its statute of “agent of the foreigner”. This label, which recalls that of “enemy of the people” of the Stalinist USSR, designates organizations considered to be acting against Russian interests and receiving foreign funds.
“It is a harmful decision, unjust and very harmful to our country”, reacted the defense lawyer, Maria Eïsmont.
The verdict was greeted with cries of “Shame! In the courtroom. Memorial International has pledged to find “legal means” to continue its activities.
Know the truth
“Memorial, it is a need of the citizens of Russia to know the truth about its tragic past, about the fate of several million people. And no one will be able to “liquidate” this need, ”assured the NGO.
One of its lawyers, Tatiana Glouchkova, told AFP that the NGO was going to prepare an appeal before the Supreme Court’s appeal panel.
“It is a tragedy for civil society, it was the only association which helped people to know the fate of their relatives” victims of the repression, said Leonid Bakhnov, a 73-year-old writer.
Memorial, whose role and rigor are recognized in the West, has been investigating the Soviet purges for more than thirty years and identifying contemporary repressions, in particular those of Mr. Putin’s regime.
At the beginning of November, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for its dissolution, accusing it of having “systematically” violated the administrative obligations linked to its status as “foreign agent”.
In court on Tuesday, prosecutor Alexeï Jafiarov accused the NGO of “creating a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state”, of “sullying the memory” of the Second World War and of seeking to “rehabilitate Nazi criminals ”.
In another case, the prosecution demands the dissolution of its Center for the defense of human rights, accused of condoning “terrorism and extremism”, in addition to violations of the law on “foreign agents”.
Year of repression
Memorial is one of the latest victims in a long list of NGOs, opponents and the media that have fallen under prosecution in recent months.
At the beginning of the year, the authorities jailed for two and a half years the number one opponent of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny, after he had survived a poisoning, then banned his organization in June for “extremism”. Several of his supporters were arrested again on Tuesday.
Dozens of people, human rights and sexual minorities NGOs and independent media have been recognized as “foreign agents” or accused of extremism.
Memorial’s troubles illustrate the clash between two visions of Russian history, thirty years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, described by Vladimir Putin as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.e century.
Founded in the twilight of the USSR by dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, Memorial’s mission was to shed light on the millions of victims of Soviet crimes.
For its defenders, it now undergoes the increasingly accentuated promotion by the Kremlin of a vision of history glorifying the power of the USSR and minimizing the excesses of Stalinism.