On Friday, the Moscow court ordered the permanent closure of the Sakharov Center, a major Russian human rights organization named after the physicist and activist Andrei Sakharov, one of the most famous dissidents in the history of the Soviet Union and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize. It is yet another judicial ruling against NGOs and groups opposing the Russian government, which in recent years have criticized the closure of state-independent media and the repression of dissent. Among those already closed are the Helsinki Group of Moscow, which was the longest-running human rights organization in Russia, and Memorial, forced to dissolve at the end of 2021 by the Russian Supreme Court.
The Sakharov Center was created in 1996. In January, Russia’s Justice Ministry initiated proceedings against the organization, accusing it of hosting illegal conferences and exhibitions, and in April it was evicted from its premises, which included the Sakharov’s former apartment and which until then he had been able to occupy for free.
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