Moscow shuts down the oldest human rights organization – the Moscow Helsinki Group

ROME – It only took twenty minutes for Judge Mikhail Kazakov to pronounce the sentence with which he decided to close the oldest human rights organization in Russia: the Moscow Helsinki Group. Founded in 1976, the organization was shut down during the Kremlin’s campaign to gag those who protest the war in Ukraine, writes Mediazone.

The sentence. According to the judges, the members of the organization are responsible for having participated in events “outside their region”, ie outside Moscow. In December, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit alleging that the organization was registered to defend and monitor the human rights situation in Moscow, but has operated across the country and is beyond its scope. In any case, it should be noted that the MHG has always operated outside Moscow from the 1970s to today.

The reaction. The Organization declared the measure “disproportionate” and reiterated that it will continue to work in favor of rights regardless of the wishes of the authorities. “You are making a grave mistake, you are destroying the human rights movement in Russia,” NGO co-chairman Valery Borshov said during the hearing. The Moscow Helsinki Group will present an appeal, also trying to assert the illegality of the inspections organized by the Ministry of Justice in the headquarters of the organization.

The story of the Moscow Helsinki Group. MHG was born in May 1976 in the Moscow apartment of legendary rights advocate and physicist Andrei Sakharov, through the efforts of prominent Soviet dissidents. Within a year of the organization’s inception, all of its founders were arrested or forced into exile.

Among the founders was Yuri Orlov. Also promoter of the Soviet branch of Amnesty International, Orlov, who was also a physicist, was arrested precisely for his activity in defense of human rights. When the KGB ordered him to shut down the group, Orlov ignored the order and so the KGB decided to put him out of business.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva. She was a historic human rights activist in Russia, who died in 2018 at the age of 91. Alekseyeva began her rights advocacy in the 1960s in the Soviet Union, she lived in exile, but then returned to Moscow to continue her activism after the collapse of the USSR. She led the Moscow Helsinki Group from 1996 to 2018. In 2017, when she celebrated her 90th birthday, Vladimir Putin visited her in her apartment and congratulated her on her “significant contribution to strengthening democratic institutions and civil society ”. Among the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group there were also: Natan Sharansky, Mikhail Bernshtam, Yelena Bonner, Aleksandr Ginzburg, Pyotr Grigorenko, all prominent figures in the defense of human rights.

The political opposition in Russia. In 2012, the MHG was one of the first human rights groups to condemn Russia’s controversial law requiring non-governmental organizations receiving funds from abroad to register as “organizations acting as foreign agents”. Over a thousand organizations were inspected and cautioned, and many rights groups were forced to close.

Aid to the Belarusians. During the anti-government protests that erupted in Belarus over the 2020 presidential elections, the organization assisted Belarusian citizens who fled to Russia to prevent them from being extradited.

Aid to the Ukrainians. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the MHG has provided Ukrainian citizens in Russia with concrete help to avoid possible persecution. The decision to close the Moscow Helsinki Group comes thirteen months after the same Moscow court dissolved the Memorial Human Rights Center, another historic rights group active in Moscow. This closure was also prompted by the Ministry of Justice.