Translated material
The Investigative Committee is conducting a pre-investigation check under Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code in relation to human rights activist Jan Rachinsky
Law enforcement officers were interested in the publication on Facebook.
On January 17, 2023, it became known that the employees of the Investigative Committee were conducting a pre-investigation check under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) in relation to Yan Rachinsky, Chairman of the Board of the international society Memorial, liquidated in 2021.
The reason for the check was a complaint about a post by Rachinsky on Facebook, published on January 25, 2021. The human rights activist talked about the upcoming ban on "identifying" the actions of the USSR and the Third Reich during the Second World War, suggesting that in fact the authorities want to prohibit discussing the issue of responsibility for starting the war, which, in his opinion, lies with Hitler and on Stalin.
In February 2022, the international "Memorial" was also checked under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism: then the organization was accused of rehabilitating Nazism "by denying, deliberately suppressing and falsifying the facts of the crimes of Nazi accomplices, immortalizing their memory as victims of political repression in the USSR" . In December 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia liquidated the international society "Memorial" at the suit of the Prosecutor General's Office under the pretext of "systematic violations" of the law on "foreign agents". The human rights center "Memorial" was also liquidated.
As a reminder, we believe that a discussion on historical topics should not become a reason for criminal prosecution, unless it is accompanied by calls for violence, hatred and discrimination. Rachinsky's post contains no such appeals and, in our opinion, does not give grounds for an audit.
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