The Memorial Human Rights Center was fined 300 thousand rubles for contacting the Russian Foreign Ministry without indicating its “foreign agent” status.

The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, Mediazona reports, found Memorial guilty under Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (sending materials to government agencies by an NPO performing the functions of a foreign agent without indicating that these materials were produced, distributed, or sent by a non-profit organization performing the functions of a foreign agent).

The administrative protocol was drawn up due to Memorial's request to the Foreign Ministry regarding the case of Turkmen blogger Rozgeldy Choliev. The request was sent to the Foreign Ministry via the electronic reception by the head of Memorial's Central Asian program, Vitaly Ponomarev, on March 8.

A 27-year-old student from Turkmenistan, Rozgeldy Choliev, who studied in Russia, criticized the authorities of his country. In September 2020, he was expelled from a university in Karachay-Cherkessia, and in March of this year, he was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport and an attempt was made to deport him. Memorial helped Choliev, Novaya Gazeta writes .
The register of "foreign agents" compiled by the Ministry of Justice includes the central organization "International Memorial" and its six divisions. "Memorial" has been repeatedly fined for not having the "foreign agent" marking. The amount of fines in November 2019exceeded 2 million rubles .

Memorial fined 300,000 rubles for request to MFA without indicating “foreign agent” status