6. Dezember 2008

Russian State authorities damage NGOs work in St.Petersburg

On december 4th the Russian Prosecution Office searched the rooms of St.Petersburg NGO "Memorial", an internationally wellknown NGO working for Human Rights. Masked police confiscated all hard drives from the organisation’s computers and disconnected all telephones in the office.

As several NGO-reports tell, the scientific research on crimes of Stalinism were heavily harmed. Memorial has conducted extensive research into the Red Terror in 1918-1922 and the history of Russia’s labour camps. Now activists fear what might happen to the material. International NGO-partners of Memorial call the case an act of repression against NGOs work, an attempt to suppress independent civic activity and silence critical voices.
Memorial is Russia's oldest and best-known human rights organisation.

Some members of Memorial suspect, that the raid may be linked to the screening of Andrey Nekrasov’s documentary film, “Rebellion - The Litvinenko Case.” The film was first shown in Russia on 20 November 2008 in Moscow’s Sakharov Centre. The screening was organised by Memorial.

Report "Deutsch-Russischer Austausch" (DRA, German)

Report Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (engl.)

Report Human Rights Watch (engl.)

Statement Amnesty International (engl.)

Report of Bellona (engl.)

Declaration of MEMORIAL (russian)

Declaration of MEMORIAL (engl.)

St.Petersburg Herold (German)

Report "Russland-Aktuell" (German)

Declaration of Green Party in German Parliament (German)

The Guardian (engl.)