The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (by a judge Vyacheslav Kirillov) that approved the opinion of the Ministry of Justice on the recognition of the international Memorial movement as an extremist organization – which means banning the activities of all Memorials and criminalizing all people related to the Memorials – creates new opportunities for political repression against our colleagues in Russia. The decision was made in a closed court session, without the admission of lawyers or other representatives of the Memorial defendants. No doubt, the SUpreme Court decision is a gross violation of all norms of the law, as noted in the joint statement of the UN Special Rapporteurs.

This next stage of repression against the Memorial continues a number of earlier similar decisions of the Supreme Court recognizing “extremist activities” of LGBT+ (also declared an “international movement” without specifying a real organization with a real exact name), as well as our colleagues from among the defenders of the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation, members of the anti-war group “Vesna” and others. We know that people whom the Russian authorities designate as “extremists” (and sometimes even “terrorists”) only for their human rights, anti-war, or anti-corruption activities are always persecuted, many are arrested, and they are given unbelievable sentences of 10 years or more in prison (as it appeared to be in the case of “Vesna” – Arkhipova, Neustroev and others). ADC Memorial has spoken out many times in support of the defenders of the rights of Indigenous peoples, including Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, arrested in Moscow, LGBT+ rights defenders and other representatives of the  groups discriminated and persecuted in Russia.

Today we express our support and solidarity to all involved in the Memorials and warn our supporters who stay in Russia (or those who may still appear to be there), that any publication of Memorial’s information, symbols, links to our websites or social networks (even reposts and likes) may become a pretext for unjustified political repression.