Moscow authorities on 24 January notified the Sakharov Centre that all rental agreements with the human rights museum and cultural centre were terminated, the centre said in a press release.
The centre will lose its main building, exhibition hall, and an apartment in downtown Moscow. The total eviction was caused by the amendments to the “foreign agent” law. The new rules dictate that “foreign agents” are not allowed to receive state support, while “all the Centre’s premises were leased by the city for free”.
“This legal conflict once again proves that the crux of the state policy is to eradicate independent organisations that defend public interests,” the press release reads.
The premises were granted to the Centre in 1993 and 1996. The downtown Moscow apartment houses Sakharov’s archives.
“The Centre created the only historic exhibition in Russia that tells the story of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian regime.”
“We sought to help society to process the tragic pages of its history, to realise that a return of political repressions, deportations and an aggressive foreign policy is pernicious for the country and should never happen again, to realise that the way to a dignified future cannot lie through arbitrariness, violence, and blood,” the Sakharov Centre lamented.
“We kept working through all these years despite the thickening atmosphere of freedom slipping away, darkness, fear, provocations, violence, and repressive laws. Today, the history of the Centre as it was for 25 years is coming to an end. An island of liberty is simply impossible in modern Russia which turned away from not just Sakharov’s legacy but the whole Russian tradition of humanism and pursuit of truth and justice.”
“You can be a free person in an unfree country. Unfortunately, you cannot be a free museum and a human rights centre in this situation,” the press release notes.
Sakharov Centre spaces were also repeatedly used for various rallies and events.
In 2019, the Centre hosted a rally organised by DOXA student magazine entitled “Freedom to students — freedom to universities”.
“For 25 years, the Centre was a place that united thousands of Russians who cared about the country, freedom values, and human rights. The Centre welcomed exhibitions, memorial events, conferences, and public discussions,” the press release notes.
