Press Release, 25.11.2021

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 25 November, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov met with human rights activists and public activists who came to the building of the Supreme Court of Russia. The court is considering the claim of the Public Prosecutor General’s Office to liquidate the international historical and educational society Memorial founded by Acad. Andrei Sakharov and other human rights defenders in 1992.

“They want to liquidate the Memorial society because the view of the organisation of the events of the Great Terror [Stalin’s repressions of 1930s] differs from that of the state. They are being tried for the fact that they are still carrying out human rights activities,” Nikolai Rybakov said.

It should be noted that, according to the version of the Public Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, Memorial has repeatedly violated the law on foreign agents, not indicating this status in its publications. Nobel Prize laureates, cultural figures, members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, and members of the Yabloko party spoke in defence of Memorial.

“We know perfectly well what labeling and organization “a foreign agent” means [in Russian it bears the connotation “a spy” since 1930s] and how negatively it affects the organisation. In our country, it means “a spy”. Hundreds of people came to support the organisation, which preserves the memory of victims of political repression, and have been doing what the state should do,” the Yabloko leader said.

Nikolai Rybakov also noted that citizens have a choice – to simply look at what is happening or actively express their civil stance. Rybakov urged people to write an appeal to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office with a call to withdraw the lawsuit against Memorial, and called people to publish their position on social networks.

“The main thing is not to keep silent,” Rybakov stressed.