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Blinken urges Russia not to misuse law on foreign agents

Russian authorities’ lawsuits, aiming to close Memorial International and Human Rights Center Memorial, is their latest attack on freedom of expression, Blinken said

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia on Friday to "stop misusing its law on 'foreign agents'," commenting on the situation around the Memorial human rights non-governmental organization, recognized in Russia as a foreign agent.

"Russian authorities’ lawsuits, aiming to close Memorial International and Human Rights Center Memorial, is their latest attack on freedom of expression. Russia must end the lawsuits and stop misusing its law on "foreign agents" to harass, stigmatize, and silence civil society," he wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court to liquidate Memorial for violating the law on foreign agents. The office later told TASS that the group repeatedly committed gross violations. On Friday, the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights considered the closure of the Memorial human rights non-governmental organization, recognized in Russia as a foreign agent, as an extreme measure which was unjust and disproportionate to the violations. According to the council’s statement posted on its website, the council "is monitoring the situation with alarm and will undertake steps in order to settle the situation around Memorial."

Memorial International was put on the list of foreign agent NGOs in 2016. In recent years, the group has repeatedly been fined by courts for violations of the law on foreign agents.

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