Russia Orders Rights Group Chronicling Repression to Close
- Supreme Court rules Memorial violated ‘foreign agent’ law
- Order comes as Russia cracks down on opposition, media
Supreme Court judge Alla Nazarova orders the closure of Memorial International at a hearing in Moscow on Dec. 28.
Photographer: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
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Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the closure of International Memorial, the country’s most prominent human rights group, escalating a sweeping crackdown that has also targeted opposition activists and independent media.
The group founded by Soviet-era dissidents including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov must shut down after failing to identify itself as a “foreign agent” under Russian law, Judge Alla Nazarova said Tuesday.