Human rights defenders react with distrust to information about criminal investigation against “Memorial”*

There is no confirmation of the information about the criminal case on the rehabilitation of Nazism allegedly instituted against employees of the “Memorial”* society, Yan Rachinsky reports. His colleague Oleg Orlov suggests that the purpose of disseminating the above information is to force the “Memorial”* society’s employees to leave Russia.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on March 4, it became known that a case under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism was instituted against employees of the “Memorial”* society. There was no notification of the case, and investigators did not voice such claims, the human rights defenders state.

Yan Rachinsky, the former chair of the “Memorial”* society, reported that he had not received any notifications about the initiation of criminal cases. The human rights defender believes that the information is “a fake.”

According to Oleg Orlov, the co-chair of the Human Rights Protection Centre “Memorial”*, such reports are being disseminated in the media in order to put pressure on the human rights defenders.

Advocate Mikhail Biryukov believes that it is about the pressure of the law enforcement bodies on the human rights defenders.

*The organization was included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs, performing the functions of a foreign agent, and was liquidated by a court’s decision.