A Moscow court has abolished one of the oldest human rights groups in Russia. Russian prosecutors have banned the work of a group of journalists in exile, calling it an “unwanted organization”.
And on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin used Holocaust Memorial Day to reiterate false claims justifying the invasion of Ukraine, when his government used state levers to strangle independent voice and controlled how the Russians viewed the war.
The Kremlin’s new attempt this week to quell dissent comes as the fighting nears the end of its first year, with Western officials estimating more 100,000 casualties each side. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a heavy battle of attrition in eastern Ukraine, trying to rebuild their forces before spring, when each is capable of launching a major offensive.
Russian shelling has killed at least eight civilians within 24 hours in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been heaviest in recent months, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.
“The enemy is deliberately destroying our cities and towns,” the region’s military governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. “Civilians not involved in the protection and operation of the region’s critical infrastructure should evacuate.”
But by design by the Russian government, the Russian public will know very little about the loss, the devastation. due to Russian missile attacks or wave of men sent to the frontal attacks of the Russian commander. Since the war began, the Kremlin has gradually dismantled Russia’s independent media, forcing organizations that have existed for decades under Putin. outside the countryand cut off access to Facebook, BBC and other news sources.
On Thursday, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office designated Meduza, a popular independent news site, as an “unwanted organization,” meaning that people who speak to their employees “like” the content. their content or even sharing their articles may put them at risk of criminal prosecution.
The website’s activities “pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the Russian Federation,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
This decision could limit the ability of Meduza journalists, based in Latvia, to talk to people in Russia who now have reason to fear sanctions. But the journalists insist they are not discouraged, in a way declare: “We will find ways to operate in these new conditions. We will continue to report events to our readers, millions of whom are still in Russia.”
The European Union condemned the decision, calling it “another serious politically motivated attack on media freedom.” It also denounces the move of the Moscow City government to terminate the lease agreements of Sakharov Center, a museum dedicated to the history of Soviet abuse.
Two cases, the EU diplomatic mission said in one declaremarks “a dark day for Russian civil society and a new low point in the Kremlin’s leveling of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.”
However, those are just two of several similar actions by Russian authorities this week. A Moscow City Court has ordered the closure of the Moscow Helsinki Group, one of the country’s oldest human rights groups, in a decision condemned by the United Nations human rights office. The ruling “is yet another blow to human rights and the civic space in the country,” speak Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the office.
In addition, a criminal case was opened against Pyotr Verzilov, publisher of the independent website Mediazona, he speak on Thursday, adding that he was charged with “false propaganda about the Russian Army.” Mr. Verzilov, who left Russia before the war, said the allegations stemmed from his posts about Bucha, Ukrainewhere journalists and investigators find proof of crime by Russian forces.
And Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet regulator, has restricted access to CIA and FBI websites, according to state news agency Tass, which states that there is no reason to block the given sites.
In the absence of independent news organizations, many Russians rely on television, where popular channels are owned by the state or by businessmen with good conditions with the Kremlin, and all promote Putin’s government and his war. Leaked emails from Russia’s largest state media company last year showed that, at times, Russia’s main military and security agency, the FSB, directing and advising state media personnel about portraying the invasion in a positive light.
Reporters, presenters and TV presenters have had it for months repeat Putin stated that the goal of the invasion was the “denuclearization” of Ukraine. Mr. Putin has false assertion that Ukraine’s leadership is dominated by “neo-Nazi” officials — even though Ukraine’s democratically elected president is Jewish — and has long called the 2014 Ukrainian revolution a coup Nazi.
In comment In recognition of Memorial Day, Putin said that “forgetting the lessons of history will lead to a repetition of terrible tragedies” and then linked the history of the Holocaust to the war in Ukraine. He accused “Ukrainian neo-fascists” of crimes against civilians and “ethnic cleansing”, and said that Russian soldiers were there to fight “especially this crime”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, on His Own Memorial Day messagealso cited the horrors of the Holocaust in relation to the war, although he did not directly mention Russia or Mr. Putin.
“Today we remember the determination of the global coalition to stop Nazism,” Mr. Zelensky said, “and today we repeat it even stronger than before: never hatred. again, never indifferent again.”
Other Ukrainian government officials are more direct. Andriy Yermak, the president’s top adviser, said the Holocaust tragedy “should have been a warning to stop new crimes against humanity.”
“But today, right in the heart of Europe, a genocide of Ukrainians is taking place,” he said. wrote on Twitter. “We will not forgive or forget anything.”
Ivan Nechepurenko, Cassandra Vinograd, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Carly Olsonand Matthew Mpoke Bigg contribution report.
