Gorbachev and Muratov applied to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to withdraw the claim about Memorial

Nobel Peace Prize laureates, ex-President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, called on the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia to withdraw the claim to liquidate Memorial. About it informs Interfax.

“On November 25, the court is scheduled to consider the appeal of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation on the liquidation of the“ Memorial ”society. The long-term activities of Memorial have always been aimed at restoring historical justice, preserving the memory of hundreds of thousands of those killed and injured during the years of repression, and preventing this from happening now and in the future, ”the joint address of Gorbachev and Muratov says.

They are convinced that the continuation of Memorial’s work is in the interests of society and the Russian state, and the demand to close it “has caused anxiety and concern in the country that we share.”

The Nobel laureates called on the Attorney General’s Office to “withdraw the claim from the court and settle the claims out of court.” They asked the Supreme Court to postpone the consideration of the claim “in order to make it possible through joint efforts to remove this painful problem for the country.”

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 memorial was also defended by members of the club “July 1”, which includes academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, more than 70 cultural workersincluding British actor and playwright Stephen Fry, British playwright Tom Stoppard and South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee, as well as 13 Czech MPs.