The decision was awaited and scrutinized abroad. The Russian Supreme Court announced, Tuesday, December 28, the liquidation of the NGO Memorial, pillar of the fight against repression in contemporary Russia and guardian of the memory of the victims of the gulag.
This decision comes at the end of a year marked by the growing repression of people, NGOs and media perceived as critical of the president, Vladimir Poutine, in power for almost twenty-two years. “The decision is to liquidate Memorial International and its regional branches”, wrote the NGO on its Telegram account.
Seconds earlier, the judge, Alla Nazarova, had said “Accede to the request of the prosecution” to dissolve this NGO. 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” in the USSR – designates organizations considered to be acting against Russian interests because they receive foreign funds.
A decision that “sends Russia back to its past”
“It’s a wicked, unfair decision”, reacted the defense lawyer, Maria Eïsmont. Memorial has been investigating the Soviet purges for more than thirty years and identifying contemporary repressions, in particular those of Mr. Putin’s regime. The organization had said before the verdict that it would do its best to continue its work, even in the event of a ban. “To liquidate Memorial International sends Russia back to its past, and increases the danger of [nouvelles] repressions “, had estimated before the court Mme Eïsmont.
The prosecution had asked, in early November, the dissolution of Memorial, accusing it of having violated “Systematically” the obligations of his status as a “foreign agent”. In front of the court on Tuesday, the prosecutor, Alexeï Jafiarov, cracked a formal attack targeting the NGO, accusing it of “Create a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state”, of “Dirty memory” of the second world war and to seek to “Rehabilitate Nazi criminals”.
But Memorial’s legal problems do not end there. In another case, the prosecution demands the dissolution of its Center for the defense of human rights, accused of apology “Terrorism and extremism”, in addition to violations of the law on “foreign agents”. In this case, a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before a court in Moscow. Lawyers for the NGO have denounced unfounded, disproportionate and political persecution, Memorial being one of the latest victims in the long list of NGOs, opponents and media that have fallen under prosecution in recent months.
Dozens of NGOs, opponents and independent media prosecuted
At the start of 2021 – and for two and a half years – the authorities jailed the Kremlin’s number one opponent, Alexei Navalny, then banned his organization in June for “Extremism”. Several of his supporters were arrested again on Tuesday. Dozens of people, NGOs defending human rights or sexual minorities and independent media have been recognized as “foreign agents” or accused of extremism.
Moscow has also gone on the offensive on the digital front, increasing the blocking of websites deemed to be dissident and fines against web giants which do not remove content related to the opposition. 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 “Greatest geopolitical disaster” from XXe 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.
The Center for the Defense of Human Rights is specialized in the violations committed in its eyes by the contemporary Russian state. For its activities, Memorial has long been under pressure and has already paid a heavy price. In 2009, his manager in Chechnya, Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and then executed. One of its historians, Yuri Dmitriev, was sentenced Monday to fifteen years in prison for a business “Sexual assault” denounced as a stunt intended to punish him for his research on Soviet terror.