Memorial International: Russian court shuts down human rights organisation

Russia's supreme court has liquidated the country's oldest human rights organisation, Memorial International.

The court ruled Memorial must close under the controversial “foreign agent” legislation, which has targeted many NGOs and media outlets seen to be critical of the government.

Closure of one of Russia's most prominent human rights groups has been seen as a watershed moment in Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent thought.

While Memorial had been reporting on human rights in the Soviet Union and Russia since the 1980s, prosecutors alleged the organisation "creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state".

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