Russia adds independent human rights monitor OVD-Info to list of ‘extremist’ organizations
Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) has added the independent human rights monitor OVD-Info to its list of extremist organizations.
Also added were the museum Perm-36, Revolt Center, and more than 30 “structural subdivisions” of Memorial.
Russia’s Supreme Court designated Memorial an “extremist” organization in April, following a lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry. As Mediazona notes, the court formally banned the activities of the “International Public Movement Memorial.” But no such organization actually exists: Memorial is a loose network of dozens of groups that often have no legal ties to one another.
Today’s decision by Rosfinmonitoring is a regulatory consequence of that ruling. Why the authorities have linked OVD-Info, Revolt Center, and the Perm-36 museum to Memorial’s structures remains unclear.
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Revolt Center
An independent cultural space opened in 2019 in Syktyvkar. In July 2025, the FSB opened a criminal case against its founder, former editor of the outlet 7×7 Pavel Andreyev, on charges of “treason.” The security service confused him with a namesake, a participant in events of the “Platform of Civic, Anti-War and Humanitarian Initiatives” in Germany.
Perm-36
A museum established on the site of the last Soviet-era camp for political prisoners. It is considered the only surviving complex of Stalinist Gulag structures in Russia. Many dissidents were imprisoned at the camp during the Soviet years, including human rights activists Vladimir Bukovsky and Sergei Kovalev.