Nobel Peace Prize – Russia seizes Memorial offices in Moscow

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A few hours after the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for Memorial this year, a Russian court ordered the seizure of the offices of the human rights organization in Moscow. The offices had been converted into “public property,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the court’s ruling as issued Friday. Memorial has been banned in Russia since the end of 2021.

Memorial International is the oldest and most important human rights organization in Russia. Since its foundation in 1989, it has been committed to tackling Stalinist crimes in the Soviet Union. The organization itself and the Memorial Human Rights Center had to be dissolved in December 2021 due to court decisions. The public prosecutor had accused both memorial organizations of violating the so-called Aliens Act. In March 2022, Russia’s Supreme Court also rejected a postponement of the dissolution.

Law to silence critics
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin see the “foreign agents” law, passed in 2012 and expanded in 2020, as a political tool to silence opposition and civil society groups. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the law violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

There will come a time after Putin
Memorial co-founder Irina Scherbakova sees this year’s Nobel Peace Prize as an important signal to people in Russia who are critical of Putin’s regime and the war in Ukraine. The decision of the Nobel Committee is a happy event for many of them, Scherbakowa said Friday evening in Jena. Because many people in Russia are afraid of mass repression and police brutality.

But there will come a time after President Putin, Scherbakova emphasized. “I sincerely hope that Russia will eventually find a way out of this moral, political catastrophe and move towards democracy and freedom.” Sherbakowa, who studied history and German studies, is a visiting professor at the University of Jena and lives in Weimar. “They showed how the courage of a few can have an impact on the whole world,” emphasized university president Walter Rosenthal. “Thank you for your courage and perseverance.”

According to her, many people in Russia have become more realistic about the war in Ukraine in recent months. She campaigned to help and shelter conscientious objectors. “Anyone fleeing this war is one soldier less in Ukraine.”

Source: Krone

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