Law of the Week

Week-ending 17 December 2021

This week, as the legal proceedings to close down the International Memorial Society and the Memorial Human Rights Centre continued on the basis of alleged violations of the ‘foreign agent’ law (and in the case of the latter organisation also for allegedly ‘justifying’ extremism and terrorism), Moscow courts fined The Insider for failing to mark its materials with the ‘foreign agent’ label, ordering the media outlet to pay a fine of one million roubles, and fined Memorial Human Rights Centre 500,000 roubles for the same alleged offence.

Sources:

Rights in Russia: CSO of the Week: Memorial

RFE/RL, 14 December 2021: A court in Moscow has fined investigative website The Insider for failing to mark its materials as being produced by a “foreign agent,” a mandatory requirement for those added to the state’s controversial registry. The Taganka district court on December 14 ordered The Insider to pay 1 million rubles ($13,600) for the lack of labels on its materials. The group was added to the “foreign agent” registry in July.

RFE/RL, 15 December 2021: A court in Moscow has ordered the Memorial Human Rights Center — one of the post-Soviet world’s oldest and most prestigious human rights organizations — to pay a 500,000 ruble ($6,800) fine for allegedly violating Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” legislation. The December 15 ruling comes a day after Russia’s Supreme Court resumed a hearing into a request by federal prosecutors to shut down Memorial International, the umbrella organization for the group.