MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court ordered Tuesday the closure of the Memorial, the rights group of the most prominent in the country that symbolizes the post-Soviet democratization and cleaning of Stalin-era record for the past three decades.
The court’s ruling against Memorial International, the central structure of the group, which started with a hat-year imprisonment on President Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny and see historic crackdown on rights groups and independent media.
But the prohibition against Memorial stands out even in the current climate, unimaginable only a few years ago.
Alla Nazarova judge ordered the closure of Memorial International and regional branches after prosecutors accused the organization failed to mark publication with the label “foreign agent”, a tag for the groups receiving funds from abroad.
“Disgrace! Disgrace!” supporters shouted in court after the verdict.
Prosecutors also accused the International Memorial degrading memory of the Soviet Union and the victory and the rehabilitation of “Nazi criminals”.
During Tuesday’s hearing the prosecutor said Memorial “created a false image of the Soviet Union as a terrorist state and sully the memory of World War II”.
The court decision is the heaviest blow yet the organization that was founded in 1989 by Soviet dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov.
The decision came after Putin accused the advocacy group’s “terrorist and extremist organizations”.
Lawyer Maria Eismont said the shutdown was “a very bad sign,” but added that the Memorial will be appealed and press ahead with its work.
“This is not the end,” he told reporters.
‘The tragedy for Russia’ Dozens of supporters gathered outside the courthouse in freezing temperatures and several people were arrested.
Memorial is a loose structure locally registered organization, with Memorial International maintains extensive archives network in Moscow and coordinate the work.
The group has spent years cataloging the atrocities committed in the former Soviet Union, especially in the well-known network of prison camps, Gulag.
Supporters say the closure signals the end of an era in the process of democratization of post-Soviet Russia, which began 30 years ago this month.
Supporters Maria Biryukova said Russia needed Memorial ensure past mistakes are not repeated.
“Memorial to tell the truth, there is no way to do so degrading the country,” he told AFP.
Another supporter, writer Leonid Bakhnov, whose grandfather was executed at the height of Stalin-era purge in 1937, said the closure of the group is “a tragedy for Russia”.
“What a wonderful new year they arranged for us,” she said bitterly.
Memorial founder has denied any serious violations, saying only a significant number of documents may have been lost tag “foreign agents”.
Tuesday’s hearing is one of two cases filed against the group.
The prosecutor also demanded the court near Memorial Center for Human Rights, accusing forgive “terrorism and extremism” in addition to violations of the law “foreign agents”.
On Wednesday, a Moscow court will hold a new trial in the case.
Memorial Center for Human Rights has been campaigning for the rights of political prisoners, migrants and other marginalized groups, and highlighted violations, especially in the turbulent North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya.
‘Trying to delete history’Observers in Russia and abroad condemned the ruling.
Political analyst Anton Orekh said the closure of Memorial is similar to the “public justification of Stalin purge”.
“The consequences for the present and future of our country would be a disaster,” he added.
US ambassador John Sullivan called it “a blatant attempt and tragic freedom suppress expression and history delete”, refers to a Russian court ruling, Auschwitz Memorial said on Twitter: “A power that fear memory, will never be able to reach the maturity of democracy.” On Monday, a court in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk increased by two years of a 13-year prison term for the head of Memorial in Karelia, Yury Dmitriyev, in the case of sexual harassment.
His supporters say he is being punished for his finding mass graves of people killed under Stalin.
Separately, a team Navalny said on Tuesday authorities had arrested the head of the now-demolished office in Irkutsk and Tomsk region of Siberia, Zakhar Sarapulov and Ksenia Fadeyeva who is also a local member of parliament.