MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Investigators on Tuesday began a series of searches of employees of the International Memorial historical educational society (recognized in Russia as a foreign agent), law enforcement agencies told TASS.

"On Tuesday morning, investigators came to search Memorial employees living in Moscow. In particular, Oleg Orlov, chairman of the Human Rights Center's council, Nikita Petrov, deputy chairman of the center, and Jan Rachinsky, chairman of the Memorial society board of directors, are under investigation," the law enforcement agencies said. According to their information, the searches are connected with a case having to do with encouraging Nazism. The society reported the ongoing searches on its Telegram channel, but did not give any further details.

The Russian Investigative Committee previously reported the launch of a criminal case against the Memorial employees for rehabilitation of Nazism. The case was initiated following a request from the Veterans of Russia public movement. It is being investigated by the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Tverskoy branch. So far, TASS has not received any comments from the Investigative Committee.

In December 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to dissolve the International Memorial historical educational society for violating the law on foreign agents.