In other times, the news would have attracted more attention: Russia closed the representations of 15 non-governmental organizations in the country on Friday evening.

In addition to “Amnesty International” and “Human Rights Watch”, all political foundations in Germany are affected.

Moscow has long been bothered by criticism from human rights defenders.

They documented legal violations in the penal system and in Russia's wars, now condemning the attack on and the warfare in Ukraine.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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In addition, the de facto work ban for the international human rights activists fits into the actions against their Russian colleagues.

At the end of December, courts ordered the dissolution of the international umbrella organization of "Memorial" and the movement's human rights protection center, which higher authorities confirmed.

The resolution is actually a lengthy process.

But now "Memorials" accounts have been blocked, so that salaries and bills can no longer be paid.

Even the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was affected

In recent years, the German party-affiliated foundations have repeatedly been the target of criticism from Moscow's power and media apparatus.

In the past, harassment by the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and the SPD-affiliated Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation were topics of bilateral talks, the work could go on.

Most recently, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is close to the Greens, came into the crosshairs, also because of the party's rejection of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

But now the Ministry of Justice has removed these three foundations from its register of non-governmental organizations, as has the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is close to the FDP, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, which is close to the CSU, and even Rosa, who is close to the left and has repeatedly attracted attention for its particularly Putin-friendly positions -Luxembourg Foundation.

This is bitter for staff and organisations' partners, but not as bad as being labeled as 'extremist' or 'undesirable';

the latter stigma has already hit four German organizations.

In such cases, there is a risk of criminal prosecution.

But the signal remains that Russia is increasingly isolating itself and wants to destroy all remnants of civil society.

The reasons for the bans referred to indefinite "violations of the law".

The organizations, the EU and the federal government criticized the move.

The Russian government is showing the world its true colors once again, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office.

"With targeted bans and censorship, all voices that advocate transparency and truth, justice, human rights and democracy are consistently silenced - at the expense of the Russian people." regime to the outside world.

The branch of the German Research Foundation in Russia was also closed.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she suspended all of the projects she was supporting and set up an aid program for scientists from Ukraine and Russia who had to flee.