The police destroyed the Moscow office of “Memorial” during the search

Employees of the Moscow branch of the human rights society “Memorial” published photos of their office in Maly Karetny Lane after the search on Tuesday. The photos show that the office premises are in chaos. Documents and other things are scattered, office equipment is overturned, the room is littered with boxes.

“The security forces took away the computers, turned everything upside down and drank the vodka that remained in the building (after that, they probably started rioting),” – reported on the Memorial’s social networks.

The organization’s lawyers were not allowed to be present during the search, so human rights defenders still cannot accurately calculate what was taken from the office.

Searches in the office of “Memorial” in Moscow and in the apartments of more than 10 of its employees took place on March 21. After the searches, the “Memorial” employees were brought to the police department of the Tver district of Moscow, the “Dozhd” TV channel reports. On March 16, former employees of “Memorial” were searched in Perm. Personal belongings were confiscated from several people and taken to interrogations.

In mid-March, a criminal case was initiated against the employees of “Memorial” under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism. The case was opened at the insistence of the “Veterans of Russia” movement. In their statement, they indicated that in the lists of victims of Stalinist repressions, compiled by “Memorial”, they found the names of people convicted in the USSR under the article of cooperation with the Nazis during the war.

• In December 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia decided to liquidate the International Memorial, and the Moscow City Court made a similar decision regarding the Memorial human rights center.
• Human rights defenders were accused of violating the law on foreign agents. “Memorial”, in turn, called the actions of the Russian authorities politically motivated and disproportionate. The “Memorial” team continues its human rights activities without a legal entity as a human rights project “Support of political prisoners. Memorial””