EU condemns Russian crackdowns on Meduza and the Sakharov Center

On Friday, the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell published a denunciation of the Russian authorities concerning the independent Russian media Meduza. On Thursday, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation included Meduza in the list of “undesirable organizations”.
The EU statement was published in Josep Borrell’s Telegram channel especially in Russian.
“This is yet another serious, politically motivated attack on media freedom in Russia. This decision shows that it is not enough for the Russian authorities to disseminate manipulative information about Russia’s war against Ukraine, they also want to prevent independent media from providing the Russian public with access to factual information about this war. , the EC said in a statement. statement.
Previously, Russian authorities declared Meduza in Russia a “foreign agent” and blocked it after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
The EU also condemned the decision of the Russian authorities to close the Sakharov Center through the termination of the rental contracts for the premises of the center by the Moscow City Real Estate Service.
“These events mark a dark day for Russian civil society and a new low point in the Kremlin’s destruction of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. Its aggression against Ukraine is accompanied by a continuous and increasingly intense persecution of Russian residents inside the country,” the EU statement said.
The European Union calls on the Russian authorities to repeal the existing laws on “undesirable organisations” and “foreign agents”, which severely restrict freedom of association and opinion, in order to bring Russian legislation into line with Russia’s international obligations.The EU specifically notes that it “is on the side of independent Russian media, civil society and human rights activists who, despite the intensification of persecution in Russia, continue to defend human rights in Russia and to oppose authoritarianism and war”.