Memorial* commented on information about the criminal case against employees of the organization

Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the board of directors of the International Memorial (listed by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents and liquidated), told The Eastern Herald that he knew nothing about the criminal case in connection with the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism ( Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) against employees of the organization. The opening of such a case was reported on March 4 telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU and the TASS agency.

“I still don’t know anything about any type of control, especially about a criminal case,” Rachinsky told The Eastern Herald.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Memorial* also commented message telegram from the Baza channel on January 17 that the Commission of Inquiry (CI) began to check against him under the article on the “rehabilitation of Nazism”. According to the channel, it was a post by Rachinsky on Facebook (owned by Meta**), written in January 2021. In this publication, writes Baza, the head of “Memorial” * claims that the responsibility for the outbreak of World War II falls on both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

“Of course all the ‘fact denial’ wording has nothing to do with reality, it’s no coincidence there’s nothing concrete in the post. All I have said and written is easy to find and make sure there is no reason for such claims,” Rachinsky noted.

Criminal case against Memorial employees*

Today, March 4, the Cheka-OGPU telegram channel, considered close to the Russian security forces, informedthat the investigative department of the Tverskoy District Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation under the article on rehabilitation from Nazism against “unidentified employees” of “Memorial”*.

The publication of the Cheka-OGPU indicates that, according to the investigation, “employees of the company acted with the aim of publicly denying the facts established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal as well as deliberately spreading false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second World War, using the means of the mass media”. The Telegram channel did not provide further details about the case.

How informed Source TASS in law enforcement, the grounds for opening the case were suspicions that Memorial * included in the lists of suppressed persons those who collaborated with the fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War.

“The investigation finds that a number of Memorial* employees likened collaborators to victims of political repression and deliberately disseminated false information about the activities of the USSR during World War II using the media” , said the interlocutor of the agency.

The Investigative Committee of Russia did not officially comment on the information about the opening of a case against the employees of “Memorial”*.

The historical and educational organization “International Memorial”* was established in Moscow in 1992. Later, the human rights center “Memorial”* emerged as a subsidiary structure. The organizations were engaged in collecting and studying information about Soviet-era repressions, as well as assisting political prisoners. International Memorial* was recognized as a foreign agent in 2016 and liquidated by Supreme Court decision at the end of 2021.

In February 2022, the Board of Inquiry also began checking against Memorial under the Rehabilitation from Nazism article. As RBC wrote, the verification was initiated after the UK received a message that the organization was “perpetuating” the memory of “Nazi accomplices” as “victims of the crimes of the USSR”. An appeal against “Memorial”* was then filed by “Veterans of Russia”. Rachinsky, then summoned to the commission of inquiry, notes that Memorial’s database of repressions* does not indicate whether “they (the repressed) led a blameless life or sinned”, according to him, it does not contain “that information about unlawful repressions on political grounds.” grounds.”

* entered by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents and liquidated

** Meta’s activities in the implementation of Facebook and Instagram in Russia are recognized as extremist and prohibited