Source: Amnesty International –
Reacting to the news that the Russian authorities have arbitrarily designated prominent human rights group Memorial as “extremist” and banned its activities in the country, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Regional Director, said:
“For close to 40 years, Memorial’s tireless commitment to documenting past and ongoing repression in Russia has ensured that violations against millions of people are not forgotten. These include the victims of Stalin’s GULAG, unlawful acts and human rights abuses in conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, and the arbitrary detention of hundreds of the Kremlin’s critics and political opponents today. A frontline human rights organization, Memorial has bravely defended human rights in the face of horrific reprisals, including the persecution, detention and killing of its staff.”
“By labelling Memorial as ‘extremist,’ the authorities are not just targeting one of Russia’s oldest civil society organizations and co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, they are criminalizing human rights work itself. From now on, liking or sharing Memorial’s social media and other materials, and any reference to them in publications without mentioning the organization’s ‘extremist’ status, may be prosecuted as a criminal act. These blatant attempts by the Kremlin to ban Memorial and erase its extensive archives of human rights violations from the public domain are deplorable.
By labelling Memorial as ‘extremist,’ the authorities are not just targeting one of Russia’s oldest civil society organizations and co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, they are criminalizing human rights work itself
Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Regional Director
“The Russian authorities must immediately reverse this outrageous decision and ensure that Memorial and other human rights groups can operate freely in line with Russia’s obligations under international human rights law.”
Background
In a closed hearing held on 9 April 2026, Russia’s Supreme Court granted a request by the Ministry of Justice to designate the “International public movement Memorial” – a catch-all term that the government is using to impose the ban on all Memorial-related organizations – as “extremist” and ban its activities in the country.
This move culminates a years-long campaign against Memorial, which was founded in the late Soviet period and has since grown into a community of dozens of sister organizations operating in Russia and abroad. In May 2014 one of them, Russia-based Human Rights Centre Memorial, was designated as a “foreign agent.” Since then, the Russian authorities have labelled several other Memorial organizations as well as around 20 of its staff members “foreign agents.” In December 2021, International Memorial and Human Rights Centre Memorial were liquidated for alleged violations of the repressive “foreign agents” law. In February 2026, the Ministry of Justice added the Switzerland-based Memorial International Association and German foundation Zukunft Memorial to the list of “undesirable organizations.”