Memorial Human Rights Center suspends all work in Russia after Supreme Court designates movement ‘extremist’

The Memorial Human Rights Center announced that it is suspending all work inside Russia as of April 9, after Russia’s Supreme Court designated the International Memorial public movement an extremist organization.

Memorial called the ruling unlawful and “a new stage of political pressure on Russian civil society.”

“The organization named in the court’s ruling does not exist. We do not even know what this fiction is accused of: the case is classified, and it has not been possible to review the state’s claims until today. However, we cannot rule out that the repressive apparatus of Putin’s regime will pursue supporters and participants of the most varied Memorial organizations,” the group said.

The group added: “We have no employees, members, or volunteers in Russia. We do not accept donations from Russian bank cards, as this could put our donors at risk. Outside of Putin’s Russia, the Memorial Human Rights Center will continue its work, regardless of any repressive decisions by Russian state bodies.”

In March 2026, the Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court seeking to ban and designate as extremist the International Memorial public movement. The Supreme Court announced its ruling on April 9. The hearing was held in private. The International Memorial public movement does not exist as such, since Memorial comprises dozens of separate organizations with no legal connection to one another in many cases, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona noted. The court nonetheless banned the activities of the movement’s structural subdivisions.