The Ministry of Justice declared the Lev Kopelev Forum an undesirable organization

The Ministry of Justice of Russia included the Lev Kopelev Forum in the list of so-called undesirable organizations. This is a German non-profit organization that preserves the legacy of the writer and dissident Kopelev and continues his work in the field of human rights protection.

The forum named after Lev Kopelev was founded in 1998 after the death of the human rights defender. In 2001, he established the Kopelev Prize for Peace and Human Rights.

The laureates of the award in different years were the leaders of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tykhanovskaya, Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo, the Russian media resource “OVD-Info”, historian Yury Dmitriev, the Society “Memorial”, the editorial office of “Novaya Gazeta”, Syrian doctors Ammar Zakaria and Abdulkader Abdulrahim, Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov, the HALO Trust organization, which deals with demining mines, and the Dresden initiative to save refugees in the Mediterranean Sea “Mission Lifeline”.

In 2023, the prize was awarded to the people of Ukraine.

• Legislation on “undesirable” organizations has been in effect in Russia since 2015. Since then, dozens of foreign structures have been added to the list of such joint ventures. On February 20, it was announced that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by a Congressional grant through the US Global Media Agency, will be listed as “undesirable”.
• Entering the “undesirable” register means that the organization is prohibited from operating in the country, and Russian citizens are prohibited from cooperating with it under threat of criminal prosecution.