Russia: Assault to the office of International Memorial in Moscow

The Observatory has been informed about the attack of the office of the non-governmental organisations International Memorial [1] in Moscow.

On October 14, 2021, around 7.30 pm, a group of over a dozen unknown attackers equipped with video cameras burst into the offices of International Memorial and Human Rights Center “Memorial” [2], interrupting International Memorial’s screening of the film“Mr. Jones”, about a Welsh journalist who reported the Stalin-era mass famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s known as Holodomor. The screening at Memorials’ office, which had started at 7pm, was organised jointly with the Polish Cultural Centre in Moscow and was coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation by the Polish Cultural Centre. The attackers shouted slogans such as "Shame" and "Down with fascism", forcing the interruption of the screening. The staff of International Memorial called the police, but most of the attackers had left before the police arrived. Yet a few were prevented from leaving by Memorial staff.

When the police later arrived,they said that the event was “unauthorised” and did not meet safety standards. Instead of searching for the attackers, the police reportedly allowed the rest of the men who had stormed the Memorial’s offices to leave without being questioned. They further started to gather information about the attendees of the screening and International Memorial’s staff, and handcuffed the entrance doors of Memorial’s office, locking in everyone inside for several hours. Any attempts to leave the premises were prevented by the police, including by physical force. All the staff and attendees were required to fill out a form, including detailed personal data and information about possible criminal records. Until midnight, Memorial’s lawyer who had a warrant was not allowed to enter the office. The police also dismantled the office’s fire alarm system and took away a video recording device. International Memorial subsequently lodged a complaint to the police.

The Observatory recalls that this is not the first time that the Memorial movement has faced acts of harassment and obstacles to its work, including through fines and searches of their premises across the country. Several human rights defenders from the Memorial movement have been imprisoned on politically motivated charges, including Oyub Titiev, head of Human Rights Center Memorial’s office in Chechnya and Yury Dmitriyev, head of Karelian branch of International Memorial. Furthermore, since 2013, Russian authorities labelled some member organisations of the Memorial movement as “foreign agents”, including both International Memorial and the Human Rights Center.

The Observatory strongly condemns the above-mentioned attack on International Memorial and calls on the Russian authorities to carry out an immediate, fair, impartial and independent investigation in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal and sanction them as provided by the law.

The Observatory reminds the Russian authorities that the obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, encompassed in the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which were ratified by Russia, include the positive obligations to exercise due diligence in preventing attacks on freedoms of expression and assembly by private individuals, and to effectively investigate such acts.

The Observatory further urges the Russian authorities to ensure in all circumstances that human rights defenders in the country are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals and to guarantee the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression in the country.