The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Justice announced on Friday that it had revoked the registrations of 15 representative offices of international organizations and foreign NGOs, including those of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The groups “were deported after they were found to be in violation of the applicable legislation of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a statement.
In response to the expulsion, Amnesty International said Moscow was “effectively” closing it down. The Russian media regulator previously blocked access to Amnesty International’s Russian-language website on March 11.
“The closure of Amnesty Russia is just the latest in a long list of organizations punished for defending human rights and telling the truth to the Russian authorities,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International.
“In a country where scores of activists and dissidents have been imprisoned, killed or banned, where independent media have been slandered, blocked or forced to self-censor, and where civil society organizations have been banned or liquidated, you must be doing something right when the Kremlin trying to shut you up,” she continued.
The Russian ministry’s announcement, which did not provide the details of the violations, comes as several NGOs accuse Russia of committing crimes under international law.
Independent rights group Human Rights Watch said over the weekend it had documented a series of war crimes allegations by Russian forces in occupied territories of Ukraine, including “a case of repeated rape; two counts of summary executions, one by six men, the other by one man; and other instances of unlawful violence and threats against civilians between February 27 and March 14, 2022.”
“The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by closing our office in Moscow they will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights abuses,” Callamard said. “We continue to work undeterred to ensure that the people of Russia can enjoy their human rights without discrimination. We will redouble our efforts to expose Russia’s egregious human rights abuses at home and abroad.”