In Russia, the repression of critical voices that has taken place since the start of the invasion of Ukraine continues. This Friday, the Moscow City Court ordered the dissolution of the Sakharov Center association, one of the last pillars of the defense of human rights in the country.
In a statement, the court said the association, which bears the name of Soviet Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, had illegally organized conferences and exhibitions in Russia outside its regional “area of activity” planned in its statutes. Last spring, the Sakharov Center had already been forced to leave its historic premises in Moscow. This is at least the third time that the authorities have recently used this reason to dissolve an association with critical opinions.
A museum of Soviet crimes
In January, for the same reason, the same court dissolved the Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights NGO in Russia, and then, in April, the Sova Center, which specializes in the study of racism and xenophobia. Last spring, the Sakharov Center was forced to leave its historic premises in Moscow. For nearly 30 years, this place, emblematic of Russian civil society, had hosted hundreds of debates, cultural events, and included a museum on Soviet crimes.
It is also there that thousands of people gathered, in 2015, in front of the coffin of the assassinated opponent Boris Nemtsov. In April, the Russian Ministry of Justice had launched a “verification” of the Sakharov Center association, designated since 2014 “foreign agent”, an infamous status. It was this procedure that led to its dissolution.
The “collective” alternative
The director of the Sakharov Center, Sergei Lukachevsky, in exile in Germany, had then assured that in the event of dissolution the NGO would be reconstituted in Russia in the form of a “collective”. In parallel with its offensive in Ukraine, the Russian government is using an increasingly flexible legislative arsenal to punish or prohibit any personality or association deemed hostile to the Kremlin.
Previously, at the end of 2021, Russian justice also dissolved Memorial, a pillar of the fight for human rights and the memory of the victims of Soviet repressions, while the Kremlin seeks to promote a positive image of the USSR.