Picketers in support of “International Memorial”* detained in Moscow

The police have detained activists Olga Bakst and Aleksei Belenkin, who took to pickets in front of the building of the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia, where the trial on the lawsuit to liquidate the “International Memorial”* has been started today.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on November 8, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit to liquidate the HRC “Memorial”*, considering that the NGO justified extremism and terrorism.

Olga Bakst was standing in front of the courthouse with a poster in her hands reading: “Thank you, Memorial*, for remembering us”, the OVD-Info”** reported on its website with reference to Olga Lebedeva, an employee of the “Memorial”*.

Aleksei Belenkin, the second picketer detained by the police, wanted to unfold the poster reading: “We are Memorial”*, but he was forced into a police car before he could do that, the “OVD-Info”** reports in its Telegram channel.

Let us remind you that human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists earlier interviewed by the “Caucasian Knot” noted that the liquidation of the “Memorials”* would cause serious damage to the protection of human rights in Northern Caucasus. On November 12, the “Change.Org” website published a petition in support of the “International Memorial”* and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*. As of 11:35 a.m. Moscow time on November 25, the petition was signed by about 105,000 people.

*The organization has been put by the Russian Ministry of Justice on the register of NCOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.

**The edition has been included by the Russian Ministry of Justice into the list of the media-foreign agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 25, 2021 at 11:38 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.