Russian justice on Wednesday ordered, for the second time in two days, the closure of the structures of the country’s main human rights organization, Memorial, despite an international wave of outrage. The courtyard “decided to accede to the prosecutor’s request to dissolve the Memorial rights organization and all attached entities”said Judge Mikhail Kazakov, according to an AFP correspondent at the Moscow City Court.
Wednesday’s ruling applies to the body documenting human rights violations in contemporary Russia, including political prosecutions against Vladimir Putin’s opponents. The day before, the Supreme Court had banned its parent company, Memorial International, and its structures investigating the Soviet purges. The Memorial Human Rights Center was dissolved for breaking a controversial “foreign agent” law and for promoting “terrorism” and “extremism”.
Founded in 1989 by Soviet dissidents wanting to save the memory of the victims of Stalinist crimes, the Memorial NGO then established itself as a pillar of civil society, drawing the wrath of the Kremlin for its commitment to the defense of public freedoms. .
Despite the freezing cold, dozens of people gathered in front of the tribunal to express their support for this organization, which is emblematic of contemporary Russian history. “If we are dissolved, it will confirm that political prosecutions have become a systemic reality of our lives.”, had pleaded in court Alexander Cherkassov, who heads the Center for the Defense of Human Rights.
The two dissolutions announced on Tuesday and Wednesday mark the crossing of a new level in the all-out repression of critical voices from the Kremlin. The year 2021 was marked by the imprisonment of the opponent Alexeï Navalny, then the banning of his movement for “extremism”, but also the designation of many NGOs, independent media or individuals such as “foreign agents”.
This qualification, which is reminiscent of that of “enemy of the people” in Soviet times, forces the persons or entities concerned to submit to tedious administrative procedures and to mention this status in each of their publications. It is precisely because they criticized Memorial and its Human Rights Center for having failed in this last obligation in certain publications that the Russian authorities obtained its dissolution.