Human rights group ‘Memorial’ is temporarily spared eviction in St. Petersburg

The human rights group Memorial won’t be kicked out of its office in St. Petersburg — not yet, anyway. For more than 20 years, the group has operated out of an old building on Razyezhaya Street, where its lease renewal was suddenly rejected earlier this month. Responding to an inquiry by city council member Boris Vishnevsky, Governor Georgy Poltavchenko revealed on Thursday that St. Petersburg’s Property Relations Committee has suspended the termination of Memorial’s lease while it conducts additional inspections of the building in question. A final decision on the matter is expected by late September.

What’s so special about Memorial?

Recognized as a “foreign agent” nationally, Memorial has faced intense persecution in Chechnya, where the group’s local leader, Oyub Titiev, was arrested in January on suspicious drug-possession charges. His case even prompted Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov to declare the territory “off limits” to “human rights activists, terrorists, and extremists.” Chechen officials have also pressured Memorial’s landlord in Grozny. In Karelia, the local Memorial chief, Yuri Dmitriev, is now being prosecuted for child abuse in a controversial retrial.