Russia shuts down human rights group

Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the closure of a prominent human rights group amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent. The top court in its ruling said the group, Memorial International, “creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, [and] whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals.” A crowd chanted “Disgrace!” outside the court after the ruling.

What triggered the shutdown? The Prosecutor General’s Office asked the Supreme Court to revoke Memorial International’s legal status last month. The court concluded Memorial repeatedly violated Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” law. Founded in the 1980s to document repression under the Soviet Union, Memorial now includes more than 50 smaller groups in Russia and abroad. Russian authorities have labeled several rights groups and media outlets as foreign agents in recent months. Memorial’s sister organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center, is also scheduled to face a closure hearing. On Saturday, authorities blocked the website of OVD-Info, a legal aid group focused on political arrests.

Dig deeper: Read Jenny Lind Schmitt’s WORLD Magazine report on Christians’ response to protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin.