Memorial’s umbrella organization was banned on Tuesday for alleged violations of the so-called foreign agent law. As Memorial explained in the messenger service Telegram, the decision also banned the regional sub-organizations of Memorial International. Dozens of people demonstrated in front of the Moscow courthouse against the forced dissolution of Memorial.
Memorial is one of the most important civil society organizations in Russia. The organization, which was co-founded by the Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov at the end of the 1980s, advocates coming to terms with political persecution and Stalinist terror in the Soviet Union, as well as protecting human and civil rights in today’s Russia.
The Memorial Human Rights Center Memorial is also charged with violations of the Foreign Agents Act. The public prosecutor’s office also accuses the center of glorifying “terrorism and extremism”. Another hearing in this case will take place in a court in Moscow on Wednesday. The Memorial Human Rights Center supports political prisoners in Russia in particular. This year it also repeatedly pointed to the fate of the imprisoned opposition politician Alexej Navalny.
Observers see the crackdown on Memorial as an attempt by the Russian leadership to reinterpret Soviet history. While Memorial wants to create memorials for the victims of Stalinism, the Kremlin commemorates Stalin above all as a war hero and conqueror of National Socialism. Coming to terms with the way Memorial does it is seen as an attack on this historical image.