Russia: 32 years of combat "liquidated" for the NGO Memorial?

Moscow office of the NGO Memorial (Image illustration).

AP - Ivan Sekretarev

Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow

4 min

Historical pillar of the struggle for democracy in Russia, the most emblematic of Russian NGOs, created in January 1989, with the support of physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andreï Sakharov.

She is threatened with "liquidation", that is the term used by the courts.

The hearing takes place this Thursday morning at the Supreme Court in Moscow.

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From Sakharov to Mouratov: a Russian Nobel Peace Prize for the foundation in 1989 with other dissidents, another to demand that justice not pronounce its “liquidation”.

In thirty-two years, Memorial played a leading role in documenting Stalinist repression and then extended its work to human rights violations and political prisoners in the post-Soviet space.

►Also listen: LA MARCHE DU MONDE - Memorial, transmitting the memory of repressions

It is a considerable contribution to history, judge - like many historians - Konstantin Andreev, head of the training center of the Gulag museum in Moscow: “ 

Memorial is one of the key institutions for studying the subject of repression. These are people who make a considerable contribution to the work on this subject of reflection of the Soviet era, of mass repressions. And all those who write research work of course cite these sources brought into the scientific community by the researchers who work at Memorial

 ”.

Like him, many find it hard to believe in the end of this emblematic NGO and yet ... The reasons for the legal proceedings initiated are serious.

Apology for " 

extremist and terrorist activities

 ", because of its list of political prisoners, including some members of banned organizations, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, or the

Navalny

movement

.

A first hearing took place this week on this case, but the expected judgment in the Russian capital runs the risk of immediate liquidation: these are violations of the

law on foreign agents.

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Like any organization classified under this infamous status in Russia, Memorial must point this out on all of its publications. A few shortcomings in seven years spent under this label and it is therefore a chopper that no one expected at Memorial. “ 

We are torn between gravity and sadness. When we received these wonderful documents from justice, our first feelings were astonishment, anger and laughter. Because reading the prosecutor's indictment cannot

mean

anything else

, says Alexander Cherkassov, who has become the head of Memorial's human rights branch.

You don't close an organization for something that can be changed.

We had comments, we took these comments into account.

For us, it is like being shot for crossing the street outside the crosswalk.

It is true that you should not cross the street in any way, but this measure is inconsistent.

 "

►Also read: The Russian Public Prosecutor's Office calls for the dissolution of the NGO Memorial

The UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders expressed concern that following Memorial, the remaining actors of Russian civil society would also be targeted.

Imprisonment or departure abroad, critical voices in Russia are already increasingly rare.

For political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov, “ 

with this wave of bans, restrictions, designation as agents from abroad different organizations, we are witnessing this spring and autumn a kind of demonstration of how the representatives of the state apparatus and the police fight against an imaginary threat to Russia and to Russian power. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dimitri Muratov probably slowed down this process for a while, but we can see now that the championship of radicalism does not stop

 ”.

At Memorial, we have a long history of pressure and persecution.

Among the most tragic, the assassination in 2009 of its representative in Chechnya Natalia Emisterova.

Elena Jemkova, Executive Director of Memorial, however, refuses to admit defeat: “ 

The situation is serious, dangerous.

But if we are liquidated, we will start all over again: we will find money, we will find the premises, we will rearrange it and we will put our archives there

 ”.

Asked about the case on Tuesday, the Kremlin spokesman refused to comment on the case, it is " 

not a priority

 " on the presidential agenda, said Dimitri Peskov.

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