{"id":884007,"date":"2026-04-10T05:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/884007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:48:15","slug":"russia-brands-nobel-winning-rights-group-memorial-an-extremist-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/884007\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia brands Nobel-winning rights group Memorial an extremist movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

London, UK<\/strong>
Reuters<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Supreme Court designated human rights group Memorial as an \u201cextremist\u201d movement on Thursday, a move the group said marked a new phase of oppression in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ruling \u2013 the latest in a sweeping, years-long crackdown on free speech in Russia \u2013 provides a new legal mechanism for authorities to prosecute anyone who contributes to the work of the Nobel Prize-winning organisation, donates to it or shares material that it publishes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Russian state flag flies above the building of the Supreme Court, which is due to consider a request by the country\u2019s Justice Ministry to designate the human rights group Memorial as an extremist organisation, in Moscow, Russia, on 9th April 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Anastasia Barashkova<\/p>\n

After the closed-door hearing, the Supreme Court said Memorial\u2019s activities within Russia were banned with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

They \u201care clearly anti-Russian in nature and are aimed at destroying the basic foundations of Russian statehood, violating its territorial integrity, and eroding historical, cultural, spiritual, and moral values,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Memorial, whose own lawyer was not allowed to attend the hearing, condemned the ruling and vowed to continue its work from outside Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unlawful decision marks a new stage of political pressure on Russian civil society,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

In a separate development on Thursday, Russia\u2019s best-known independent news outlet, Novaya Gazeta, said masked security officers were searching its Moscow office. State media said the investigation was into illegal use of personal data.<\/p>\n

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Memorial charts rights abuses from stalin to the present
<\/strong>Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document political repression in the Soviet Union. It has defended freedom of speech and recorded human rights abuses from the time of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to the present.<\/p>\n

In December 2021, less than two months before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the authorities banned two of Memorial\u2019s flagship organisations, alleging that their work had \u201cjustified terrorism and extremism\u201d \u2013 charges the group called absurd.<\/p>\n

Memorial has continued to operate, however, mostly from outside Russia, and provide support to what it says are more than 1,500 political prisoners in the country. The Kremlin says Russia is rightly enforcing its laws against people who commit crimes.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s ruling is directed against \u201cthe international public movement Memorial\u201d. Memorial said that no such organisation exists and that the vague designation was deliberately designed to enable prosecutions of anyone speaking out on human rights or historical crimes.<\/p>\n

It said the effort would not succeed, and \u201cMemorial will outlive the Putin regime and will be able to openly return to Russia\u201d one day.<\/p>\n

It has warned supporters within Russia not to donate money or show support for its activities online after the ruling to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities.<\/p>\n

Winner of 2022 Nobel Peace Prize
<\/strong>Memorial shared the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, an award widely regarded as a condemnation of Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.<\/p>\n

Memorial leader Oleg Orlov was sentenced to prison in 2024 for \u201cdiscrediting the armed forces\u201d by protesting against the war in Ukraine and accusing President Vladimir Putin of leading a descent into fascism. He was freed later that year in a major prisoner swap agreed between the U.S.\u00a0and Russia.<\/p>\n

Anticipating Thursday\u2019s court ruling, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday it was alarmed by the application from Russia\u2019s justice ministry to label Memorial as \u201cextremist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the claim is upheld, all activities of Memorial will be criminalised. Anyone taking part in, or funding, Memorial\u2019s work \u2014 or even sharing its published materials \u2014 will risk imprisonment,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London, UKReuters Russia\u2019s Supreme Court designated human rights group Memorial as an \u201cextremist\u201d movement on Thursday, a move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[4582,37807,82342,249899,332,249900],"class_list":["post-884007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-human-rights","tag-memorial","tag-nobel-peace-prize","tag-novaya-gazeta","tag-russia","tag-russian-supreme-court"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116378842501510069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}