"People Of Russia... Deserve Better": US Condemns Rights Group Shutdown
NDTV
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, "The people of Russia- and the memory of the millions who suffered from Soviet-era repression- deserve better."
Russia's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the closure of Memorial, the country's most prominent rights group that chronicled Stalin-era purges and symbolised post-Soviet democratisation.
The ruling against Memorial International, the group's central structure, caps a year that began with the jailing of President Vladimir Putin's top critic Alexei Navalny and saw a historic crackdown on rights groups and independent media.
But the ban against Memorial stands out even in the current climate and would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
Judge Alla Nazarova ordered the closure of Memorial International and its regional branches after prosecutors accused the organisation of failing to mark its publications with a "foreign agent" label, the tag for groups receiving overseas funds.
