Thursday, November 25, 2021
Kremlin wants to dissolve organization
Trial against Memorial begins in Moscow
The Russian organization Memorial campaigns for human rights and the coming to terms with communist terror. A process is now beginning at the Supreme Court in Moscow that could lead to the dissolution of the network. Criticism is therefore being voiced both in Russia and internationally.
The much-criticized trial of the Russian human rights organization Memorial began in Moscow with great international sympathy. Several foreign diplomats were also present at the trial in the country’s Supreme Court. For example, representatives from the USA, Great Britain and France followed the process on site. The trial against the organization, which is threatened with a ban, is set to continue in mid-December.
Memorial supporters have defended the network against allegations by the authorities. “We will continue to fight to ensure that an organization that has stood up for the people for 30 years is not closed due to unfounded formalities,” said one of the co-founders, Yelena Schemkova, before the Supreme Court in Moscow. Prosecutors accused Memorial of “systematically” breaking the law on “foreign agents”.
Memorial denies allegations
The organization has had “foreign agent” status with the Russian authorities since 2016. This makes her work more difficult, as she has to disclose her sources of funding, for example, and provide a reference to all publications. Before the Supreme Court in Moscow, the public prosecutor accused Memorial of deliberately foregoing this information in order to cover up her status. Memorial lawyers and founders denied this.
Memorial consists of a network of locally registered organizations. The public prosecutor’s office has applied for the dissolution of the umbrella organization Memorial International, which coordinates the work of the regional units. Then the group would no longer have a legal basis to hire staff, receive funds or store their archives, according to one of the heads of Memorial International, Oleg Orlov.
A similar trial against the Memorial Human Rights Center in the capital is also underway in a Moscow court. Among other things, political prisoners, migrants and sexual minorities are supported there. The center is also charged with violating the “foreign agents” law and glorifying “extremism and terrorism” for publishing a list of detained members of banned political or religious movements.
Protests in front of the Supreme Court
With the trial of Memorial, the Russian judiciary is increasing the pressure on the opposition. Numerous activists had recently fled Russia. The prominent Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny is in custody, and many of the organizations he founded had to stop working. As Memorial founding member Irina Shcherbakova said before the hearing, the Russian government wants to send a message with the procedure: “We are doing what we want with civil society here.”
Memorial had started documenting Stalinist executions and the history of the gulag system before the network expanded its activities to protect human rights and political prisoners. A ban on the organization founded in 1989 by Soviet dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, would be a severe blow to the critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As a sign of solidarity, over 200 people gathered in front of the Supreme Court that morning. Some of them wore black masks that said “Memorial cannot be banned”.
International criticism
“With their research and educational work, the employees of Memorial have created something outstanding in the European culture of remembrance,” declared the International Association of Associations of Former Political Prisoners and Victims of Communism. “We protest against this attack on Memorial.”
Criticism also came from Germany, for example from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Presidents of the Baltic States and Poland condemned the actions of the Russian judiciary in a joint statement. Alar Karis (Estonia), Egils Levits (Latvia), Gitanas Nauseda (Lithuania) and Andrzej Duda (Poland) expressed “concern about historical revisionism in Russia and especially the possible closure of Memorial” in the letter.