Russian authorities should not stop at declaring the non-existent Memorial movement an “extremist association,” Andrey Lugovoy, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on security and anti-corruption, said.
According to the lawmaker, it is now necessary to identify people linked to Memorial, “punish accomplices,” and also examine literature that, he said, the organization “introduced into libraries, educational institutions, and collections under the guise of an educational mission.”
Lugovoy separately called for checking the “Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka and other memorials installed by ‘extremists.’” He noted that this concerns more than 1,500 sites across Russia.
“And of course, it is necessary to impartially assess memorial objects installed by extremists. <...> Why was this done? Are these memorial objects not a symbol of substitution? A way to justify extremism, separatism, and direct work against Russia,” the deputy wrote, urging followers to leave comments on the topic.
Photo: Yuri Kochetkov / EPA
The Solovetsky Stone was installed by Memorial in 1990 on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It is a granite boulder brought from the territory of the former Solovetsky camp, which is considered a symbol of the Gulag and Soviet terror. Moscow residents lay flowers at the stone in memory of victims of political repression.
A day earlier, Russia’s Supreme Court granted a Justice Ministry lawsuit and declared the “international public movement ‘Memorial’” “extremist.” No such legal entity exists. After that, the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center said it was ceasing all its activities in Russia.
The Justice Ministry claims that 196 people in total are involved in the activities of the “international public movement ‘Memorial.’”