The Ministry of Justice demanded the liquidation of the SOVA center

On March 10, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court to liquidate the SOVA Information and Analytical Center. This is reported on the organization's website.

The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit based on the results of an unscheduled inspection that took place in the organization from January 9 to February 4. The department considered “Sova”’s participation in events outside Moscow—seminars and round tables in Russian regions, as well as an OSCE online conference—as “violations.” All these “violations” were confirmed by employees of the Ministry of Justice with screenshots from the Sova website.

The Center also draws attention to the fact that on September 13, 2022, on an unnamed Internet resource and in the story of the Russia 24 channel, accusations of “Russophobia, opposition to traditional values,” as well as criticism of anti-extremist legislation and law enforcement appeared. The next day, the chairman of the “Veterans of Russia” movement, Ildar Rezyapov, addressed the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee, the FSB, the presidential administration and the State Duma with a demand to check the organization.

In October, according to the publication Important Stories, a subsidiary of Roskomnadzor sent a certificate to the Ministry of Justice regarding Sova director Alexander Verkhovsky as a potential “foreign agent.”

13:55 “Someone was dissatisfied with something, but it is impossible to understand who and with what,” commented the director of the SOVA center, Alexander Verkhovsky, on the pressure on the organization. He also noted that at least three NGOs have already faced liquidation claims due to “violation of the principle of territoriality”: “Sova”, MHG and “ Man and Law ”. “This is a very old norm, but it has not been applied so literally before. There is a possibility that this trick will become serial,” the human rights activist explained.

• The SOVA Information and Analytical Center studies the problems of nationalism and xenophobia, the relationship between religion and society, as well as the misuse of anti-extremist legislation.
• In 2016, the center was included in the register of “foreign agents.”
• In November 2022, Vladimir Putin expelled the director of the SOVA Center, Alexander Verkhovsky, from the Human Rights Council.
• In January 2023, the Moscow City Court upheld the claim of the Ministry of Justice to liquidate the Moscow Helsinki Group. The formal occasion was also to hold events outside of Moscow.