The Prosecutor General's Office for the first time recognized an already closed organization as “undesirable”

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office on Thursday declared the British Equal Rights Trust, which closed more than a month ago, as “undesirable,” according to a statement on its website. The Agency was unable to find any earlier cases in which the Russian authorities gave the status of “undesirable” to an organization that had ceased its work. The experts interviewed by the Agency could not recall such cases.

Details . The Prosecutor General's Office explained the recognition of the Equal Rights Trust as “undesirable” by the fact that the organization has supported Kiev since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, “actively participates in an anti-Russian information campaign” and “under the guise of human rights activities, has developed a scheme for financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

• ️ According to the department, the organization helps opposition-minded Russians obtain citizenship of Eastern European countries in exchange for donations to Ukraine. “In addition, its members are actively calling for support for the LGBT movement, which is recognized as extremist and banned in our country, with the aim of destroying the family and moral values ​​of Russians,” the GP’s release says.
• ️ Equal Rights Trust, according to the organization’s website, has been fighting discrimination since 2007. The organization partnered with the UN Human Rights Office in developing a practical guide to developing anti-discrimination legislation.
• ️ In its work in Russia, the organization, according to its website, focused on protecting LGBT rights. For example, in 2016, she released a study on the practice of Russian courts in cases related to the rights of this group.
• ️ In June 2025, the Equal Rights Trust announced it was closing due to funding problems. The organization, according to a statement on its website, ceased operations on September 30. It follows that Equal Rights Trust received the “undesirable” status more than a month after its closure.
• ️ OVD-Info told the Agency that already closed organizations had not previously been recognized as “undesirable.” First Department lawyer Evgeny Smirnov, in a conversation with the Agency, also said that he could not remember cases when already closed organizations received the status of “undesirable”: “I don’t remember such cases, but some legal entity that ensured the activities of the project may recognize it.”