Russia Lurches Toward 'Total Repression' As Supreme Court Rules To Shut Memorial

MOSCOW -- Russia's Supreme Court has ordered the closure of Memorial International, one of the country’s oldest and most respected human rights organizations, capping a year of what critics called the state’s systematic dismantling of the country’s civil society.

The decision by the court at a hearing in Moscow on December 28 was condemned by the United States and other Western governments as well as human rights groups.

It came in a year during which Kremlin critics, their associates, independent news outlets, and rights organizations have been either muzzled, jailed, closed or forced to flee the country.

Maria Eismont, one of the lawyers in Memorial’s legal team, told the court that closing the rights organization, which counts Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov as one of its founders, would "throw the country back and increase the risk of total repression."

Yan Rachinsky, Memorial's chairman of the board, said the decision would be appealed and that the organization's work would not stop since parts of it are not legal entities.

5 Things To Know About Why Russia Closed Memorial

"The decision of the Supreme Court once again confirmed that the history of political terror organized and directed by the state authorities remains for Russia not an academic topic of interest only to specialists, but an acute problem of our time," Memorial said in a statement.

"Our country needs an honest and conscientious reflection on the Soviet past; this is the guarantee of her future. It is ridiculous to believe that the judicial liquidation of International Memorial will remove this issue from the agenda. The entire Russian society needs to remember the tragedies of the past. And not only Russian: the memory of state terror unites all the former Soviet republics," it added.

Dozens of people were at the court building in support of Memorial, which was launched shortly before the Soviet collapse in part to document Soviet repression. In the decades since, it has produced hallmark indicators of the rights situation and documented historical and ongoing injustices.

The case was initiated by prosecutors under the controversial "foreign agent" law, which increasingly is being used by officials to shutter civil society and media groups in Russia.

Judge Alla Nazarova said that Memorial International breached its designation as a "foreign agent" by not marking all its publications with the label as required by law.

In a separate case, the Moscow City Court will hold a hearing on December 29 over a prosecutor's request to shut down sister organization Memorial Human Rights Center as well for violations of the "foreign agent" legislation.

The U.S. State Department condemned the ruling on Memorial International and said it was following with concern Russia's ongoing efforts to close Memorial Human Rights Center.

"We urge Russian authorities to end their harassment of independent voices and human rights defenders and stand in solidarity with those who have been targeted for repression for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Germany's Foreign Ministry called the decision "more than incomprehensible," adding that it went against international obligations to protect fundamental civil rights.

"Justified criticism from organizations like Memorial should be listened to. The decision causes us great concern, not least because it deprives victims of oppression and repression of their voice," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Rights activists say there are no legal grounds to liquidate the organization, which also has been devoted since the late 1980s to promoting human rights in Russia and the former Soviet republics. They say the demand by the Prosecutor-General Office to shut down Memorial International is "a politically motivated decision."

"The closure of International Memorial represents a direct assault on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The authorities' use of the 'foreign agents' law to dissolve the organization is a blatant attack on civil society that seeks to blur the national memory of state repression," said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director.

"The decision to shut down International Memorial is a grave insult to victims of the Russian gulag and must be immediately overturned," she added.

Memorial said it would appeal the ruling "in all ways available to us."

Russia's so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance, and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

"Memorial is the heart and soul of the Russian human rights movement," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

"It is an utter outrage that the Kremlin is now moving to shut Memorial down. It speaks to the fears of the Russian government that it is no longer willing to tolerate the honest and objective recounting of its conduct that Memorial provides."

"This is bitter, as Memorial -- an island of free thought and one of the last bastions of democratic civil society in Russia -- will be liquidated. Internal authoritarian harmonization and aggressive external politics go hand in hand," said Ralf Fuecks, managing director of the Center for Liberal Modernity and a former politician in Germany.

Memorial International, the umbrella organization under which the Memorial Human Rights Center and several other activist groups operate, is among several news outlets and rights organizations to have been labeled "foreign agents" in what is seen as a historic crackdown on civil society and critics of the government.

"The forced liquidation of the highly respected human rights organization International Memorial is another step in the deplorable degradation of human rights in Russia," Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.

"I call on Russia to protect human rights defenders, independent media, journalists, and opposition figures," he added.

"We fear its [Memorial International's] companion organization focusing on contemporary repression is next," HRW's Roth said.

With reporting by Interfax and Reuters