{"id":532947,"date":"2026-04-10T15:49:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=532947"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:57:44","slug":"bialiatski-on-ban-of-memorial-dictators-adopt-repressive-practices-from-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/bialiatski-on-ban-of-memorial-dictators-adopt-repressive-practices-from-one-another","title":{"rendered":"Bialiatski on Ban of Memorial: Dictators Adopt Repressive Practices From One Another"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Belarusian human rights center Viasna has commented<\/a> on the decision by Russia\u2019s Supreme Court, which on April 9 designated the Memorial movement an \u201cextremist organization\u201d and banned its activities.<\/p>\n

Viasna chairman Ales Bialiatski<\/b><\/strong> called the decision absurd and pointed out that it had been made in record time at a closed hearing following a lawsuit by the Justice Ministry, based on accusations unknown both to the defendants and to the public.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, it was announced that the authorities wanted to designate a non-existent \u2018International Public Movement Memorial\u2019 as an extremist organization.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court ruled that \u2018the movement\u2019s activities are extremist in nature and pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order, the integrity and security of the Russian Federation, and are aimed at undermining historical, cultural, spiritual and moral values, as well as inciting social and religious hatred\u2019.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

There are many different organizations with the name \u2018Memorial\u2019, working in very different fields \u2014 studying the history of Soviet repression, protecting human rights and opposing various forms of discrimination. It is a multitude of independent organizations with different mandates, working methods and people. But it is obvious that this is not a mistake. The authorities have already used this convenient wording about non-existent \u2018international public movements\u2019 to ban a broad range of phenomena they dislike: \u2018LGBT\u2019, the \u2018Anti-Russian Separatist Movement\u2019”<\/i><\/em>, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Bialiatski drew a parallel with Belarus: in August 2023, Viasna itself was designated an extremist formation by the Belarusian Interior Ministry. According to him, dictatorships adopt repressive practices from one another, but attacks by the authorities have not stopped the organization\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

“We express solidarity with Russia\u2019s oldest human rights organization and call on our Russian colleagues to strengthen human rights work to protect human rights in Russia”<\/i><\/em>, the head of Viasna said.<\/p>\n

Memorial was established in the last century to study political repression in the Soviet Union. The movement also aimed to promote the development of civil society, legal awareness among citizens and a democratic rule-of-law state in order to prevent a return to totalitarianism, assist in promoting democratic values and the rights of individuals, preserve the memory of victims of political repression and restore historical truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belarusian human rights center Viasna has commented on the decision by Russia\u2019s Supreme Court, which on April 9 designated the Memorial movement an \u201cextremist organization\u201d and banned its activities. Viasna chairman Ales Bialiatski called the decision absurd and pointed out that it had been made in record time at a closed hearing following a lawsuit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":532946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69d8f3cba4807.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Bialiatski on Ban of Memorial: Dictators Adopt Repressive Practices From One Another"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143090],"tags":[143239,143118,143122],"class_list":["post-532947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-ales-beljackij","tag-belarus","tag-rossija"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}