More than 70 cultural figures came out with a letter in defense of Memorial. Signatories include Stephen Fry, Tom Stoppard and John Maxwell Coetzee

Previously, members of the “July 1” club, which includes academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also released appeal in defense of “Memorial”. 62 people signed the appeal.

November 11 Prosecutor General’s Office applied to the Supreme Court demanding the liquidation of Memorial and its structural units for “systematic violations of the legislation on“ foreign agents ”. In addition, expertise discovered linguistic and psychological signs of justifying extremism and terrorism in the register of political prisoners maintained by the Memorial Human Rights Center, which is part of the International Memorial.

The organization was defended by the Council of Europe, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. And the writer Lyudmila Petrushevskaya protesting against the authorities’ desire to liquidate Memorial refused from the title of laureate of the State Prize.

The Kremlin said that the International Memorial “has had problems for a long time” with the observance of Russian legislation.