UPDATE - European Countries Condemn Russian Court's Decision To Close NGO Memorial International

UPDATE - European Countries Condemn Russian Court's Decision to Close NGO Memorial International

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2021) A number of European countries and the Council of Europe condemned on Tuesday the Russian Supreme Court's ruling to shut down Memorial International (recognized as a foreign agent), a human rights organization studying political crimes and repression in the Soviet Union.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Supreme Court decided to grant the request of the Prosecutor General's office to shut down Memorial International for violating the Russian law on foreign agents.

"The liquidation of International Memorial is devastating news for civil society in the Russian Federation," Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric said in a statement.

The ruling was separately criticized by the foreign ministries of France, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Poland and the British embassy in Moscow.

"Today's Supreme Court ruling on the dissolution of the highly respected International #Memorial organization is a severe blow to all independent voices in #Russia. We deplore this decision as another step towards an ever more shrinking space for civil society," the Austrian ministry wrote on Twitter.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde in an interview with Sveriges Radio also called the liquidation of Memorial International in Russia an attack on democracy and human rights. In turn, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said that it testified to the destruction of civil society in the country.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland notes with concern and disappointment the today's ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the liquidation of the International Memorial Society," the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to Russian prosecutors, the Memorial International's activities distort the memory of the Great Patriotic War (the 1941-1945 war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany) and "create a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state."

On Wednesday, the Moscow city court will hold a hearing on a similar case against Memorial Human Rights Center, an affiliate group charged with justifying terrorism in its publications, along with allegedly violating the "foreign agents" law by repeatedly failing to mark its publications with a relevant warning.

On Monday, a court in Russia also sentenced the head of the Karelian Memorial Society Yuri Dmitriev to 15 years in prison on charges of pedophilia, production of child pornography and indecent assault on his adopted daughter.

Peter Stano, the spokesman for the external affairs of the European Union, said on Tuesday that the verdict against Dmitriev was allegedly related to his human rights activities and represented a violation by Russia of its international obligations.

In turn, the French Foreign Ministry said that the verdict against Dmitriev was a matter of great concern.

"Like our partners in the European Union, France is calling for his release and will continue to closely monitor the situation," the ministry said in a statement.