MOSCOW : A court in Moscow on Wednesday granted a request to shut down another prominent human rights organization amid a sweeping crackdown on Russian rights groups, independent media and opposition supporters.
The Moscow City Court’s decision to shut down the Memorial Human Rights Center came a day after Russia’s Supreme Court revoked the legal status of its sister organization, Memorial, a human rights group that drew international acclaim for its studies of political repression in the Soviet Union.
Russian authorities previously declared both organizations as “foreign agents” — a designation that brings additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Prosecutors petitioned to shut down the groups last month, arguing they had repeatedly violated regulations obliging them to identify themselves as foreign agents in all content they produce.
Moscow city authorities served another prominent human rights group with an eviction notice on Tuesday. The Civic Assistance Committee, which assists refugees and migrants in Russia, said officials handed the organization a document voiding the agreement allowing the use of the space without compensation and ordered it to leave within a month.
“The Civic Assistance will be fighting (this),” the organization’s chairwoman, Svetlana Gannushkina, said.
A number of Russian nongovernmental organizations switched to operating as informal entities in recent years to avoid being affected by restrictive laws.
