The pressure on human rights organizations in Russia is growing and has taken on unprecedented proportions.
At the opening of the exhibition “The Century of Elena Bonner”, dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the human rights activist, there was an influx of benevolent visitors, eyewitnesses testify. The exhibition will obviously be the last event in the old building of the Sakharov Center, which, by court order, is evicted from all the premises it has occupied for years. The center is also on the register of “foreign agents”, and on February 17, it will have to challenge in court a heavy fine for alleged non-compliance with labeling rules.
The structures of “Memorial” and the Moscow Helsinki Group were liquidated. The human rights organization “Man and Law” of the Republic of Mari El is being liquidated for the second time.
Under these conditions, the question arises acutely: will the human rights community be able to survive in Russia?
The mood in Russian human rights circles is different, including in rather minor circles, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, co-chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, founder of the Sakharov Center, shares his impressions with the Russian service of media.
“Some of my colleagues are in quite severe depression,” he says. Others remain optimistic. Without hope for the best in the future, it is difficult to live. We (the Sakharov Center), of course, will continue our work as far as possible after the buildings have been removed from us. Apparently, this will happen at the end of April. While we have an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of Elena Georgievna Bonert. The archive will continue to work, but in a new place – we have already moved it from the old one and from the memorial apartment of Andrei Vladimirovich Sakharov.
Things are a little worse with the Moscow Helsinki Group, continues the human rights activist: “In fact, it was destroyed. However, members of the MHG, whose work is informal, were not affected. People continue to communicate, meet, discuss current affairs, accept various documents and statements. This does not require legal status. MHG, by the way, in Soviet times worked without such a status for many years and very successfully. So I think the work will continue. Although, of course, it will take place under less favorable conditions.
The MHG website is also blocked. But, as Vyacheslav Bakhmina introduces, this is not the biggest problem: “Creating a website today is not a problem if there are resources. Yes, and we have enough volunteers to create a website that will simply display some information. But under what label will it be placed, how will we be called, these questions remain to be settled. According to the court ruling, an organization called MHG should not exist even in an unregistered form. But you can call yourself whatever you want, it’s important to maintain continuity, to preserve the mission that the MHG has always carried out. This mission is still topical, requested and necessary.
Well-known human rights organizations that deal with socially important issues and make public statements to society will undoubtedly continue to be persecuted in Russia, the head of the independent human rights project has said. man “Support for political prisoners. Memorial” Sergei Davidis.
“It is very likely that many NGOs still afloat will be liquidated after Memorial and the MHG”, predicts the interlocutor of media. – It is clear that the space for human rights activities is shrinking and our opportunities are shrinking. After all, if NGOs cannot appeal to society and publicly assess the actions of the state, then the meaning of their existence is partly lost. Nevertheless, many organisations, under current conditions, are turning to these self-limitations in order to maintain the ability to provide specific assistance to people, to monitor, to issue expert opinions on the state of human rights man and develop recommendations to correct the situation.
In any case, this work is important, even if it is not so much for today as for the future, says Sergey Davidis. According to him, in the context of what is happening, Memorial has also been forced to reorganize: “Some of our work has been transferred abroad because of the individual risks for people. In particular, it was practically impossible to carry out activities related to the publication of lists of prisoners while remaining in Russia. Part of the activities related to surveillance and legal support continue, as before, on Russian territory. Clearly we cannot do this work on behalf of the organization under its old name, but the gist of the matter does not change that.
The only pity is that as a result of such a policy of the Kremlin, ordinary people suffer, to whom human rights activists in other conditions could provide much more practical help, concluded the head of the independent human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners”. Memorial”.
