Purge of foreign agents

On February 10, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, at the suit of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, decided to liquidate the Agora Interregional Human Rights Association

Reacting to the public outcry caused by the liquidation of the association, the Ministry of Justice issued a press release stating that Agora allegedly violated the law on accounting, which is an absolute lie: the tax office issued an official decision that there were no claims in this regard . Other accusations against us were "shaping public opinion" and the demand to remove the "Agora" from the register of foreign agents. But both of these points, which I consider to be the true reasons for the whole procedure, are not illegal.

A whole bunch of various government agencies, including the prosecutor's office, the tax inspectorate, Roskomnadzor and others, have been literally terrorizing human rights activists for the past two or three years.

So far, the decision of the court of first instance has not entered into force. And as soon as this decision is handed over to us, we will appeal it to the Supreme Court of Russia, and also notify the European Court of Human Rights about the current situation, where our complaint about the inclusion of Agora in the register of foreign agents has been located since May last year. But the fate of a particular legal entity is not decisive. If only because since the moment this legal entity was included in the register of foreign agents, it has not carried out any financial and economic activities. At the same time, the team of our lawyers continues its work on all the obligations it has assumed and is not going to stop it. However, the precedent created by this court decision is dangerous in that it can lead to, and in fact has already led to, a wave of similar processes. The day after the decision of the court of Tatarstan, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to liquidate the foundation in support of democracy "Voice" (the largest and oldest organization in Russia for public observation of the elections. - NT). The conclusion suggests itself that the federal authorities have compiled a list of their main irritants, for which a decision has already been made to cease their existence. Obviously, this may include the Committee Against Torture of Igor Kalyapin, the Memorial community, and some other organizations. A whole bunch of various government agencies, including the prosecutor's office, the tax inspectorate, Roskomnadzor and others, have been literally terrorizing human rights activists for the past two or three years. And now an effective way of struggle has been found, which is expressed in claims for liquidation on formal grounds. At the same time, in the case of the ongoing complete cleansing of the disloyal government of civil space, the Ministry of Justice does not give a damn about the established judicial practice of the Supreme and High Arbitration Courts, and the standards of the Council of Europe. Our lawyers, who work throughout the country, have been witnessing a kind of withering away and destruction of established and established rules and legal guarantees in recent years. Such an aggressive policy is aimed at independent media, at the free Internet, at civic activists and street protesters, at the political opposition, and so on.