The Moscow City Property Department sealed the office of Amnesty International in Russia, which human rights activists had rented for 20 years. this on Facebook An employee of the organization, Ivan Kondratenko, reported . According to him, in the morning the employees discovered that the office had been sealed, the locks had been broken and new ones had been inserted, and it was also indicated that they needed to contact the Moscow City Property Department to remove things. Human rights activists did not receive any notice of the eviction of the office. According to Kondratenko, the organization always paid its bills on time.

The head of Amnesty International's representative office in Russia, Sergei Nikitin, confirmed to Vedomosti that the office was sealed. There is a paper pasted on the office door with the seal of the city property department, on which it is written that the object is the property of the city of Moscow. They plan to go to the city property department in the afternoon with all the receipts for payment for the office.

“The office was directly rented from the Moscow City Property Agency for more than 20 years. They came with inspections to make sure that we were renting for the intended purpose and that there was no subletting. Everything was always in order,” says Nikitin. According to him, the reason for the eviction was either technical - someone might need an office in the center of Moscow: “But maybe this is a way for the organization to survive. “Civic Assistance” was also squeezed out of its office. Because moving to another office means a change of legal address, which entails the replacement of many documents. Therefore, there may be a lot of delays. So, for example, International Crisis Group was never able to re-register in Moscow.”

The city property department, in response to a request from Vedomosti, reported that they simply closed their premises on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 22/2, from an unscrupulous former tenant. According to the department, the lease agreement expired in January 2008, but then the agreement was extended several times.

“However, due to significant violations of the conditions for payment of rent, a claim was sent to the organization with a notification of the need to repay the debt within a month. The company was also informed that otherwise, after three months, the lease agreement would be considered terminated. This claim was ignored by the unscrupulous tenant,” writes the city property department. The contract was terminated, and the premises were closed and sealed.

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 and is dedicated to drawing attention to human rights violations. For its work, Amnesty International has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the UN Human Rights Prize. Amnesty International works in seven main areas: women's rights, children's rights, the eradication of torture and the abolition of the death penalty, the rights of refugees, the rights of prisoners of conscience, and the protection of human dignity.

A. Gordeev / Vedomosti A. Gordeev / Vedomosti A. Gordeev / Vedomosti A. Gordeev / Vedomosti A. Gordeev / Vedomosti

Moscow Property Department evicts human rights activists