Russia announced Monday it would ban human rights NGO Amnesty International in the Kremlin’s latest crackdown on civil society groups opposing its war in Ukraine.
The federal prosecutor’s office declared in a statement that Amnesty was the “center of preparation of global Russophobic projects” and was in league with Ukraine, which Russia has waged war on for more than a decade.
“They justify the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, call for an increase in their funding, insist on the political and economic isolation of our country,” the prosecutor’s office said, designating Amnesty “undesirable,” meaning it cannot operate in Russia.
Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Amnesty — which says it campaigns for human rights worldwide — has documented Russian war crimes and called for the perpetrators to be held to account.
But the group has also been critical of Ukraine at times, with the head of its Kyiv arm quitting in 2022 after the publication of a controversial report accusing Ukraine’s military of violating international law and endangering civilians with its wartime tactics. The report earned the organization a rebuke from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Amnesty later apologized for the “distress” it caused but stood by its findings.
The group’s Moscow office was already shuttered by Russian authorities in the early days of the all-out invasion against Ukraine. Other advocacy groups and NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Hollywood actor George Clooney’s nonprofit foundation, have also been banned from operating in Russia.
Moscow has branded dozens of foreign charities, think tanks and civil society groups “undesirable” since 2015, when it passed a law allowing the government to target groups that are critical of President Vladimir Putin’s regime, and has ramped up domestic suppression as its international belligerence intensifies.
The post Russia bans ‘undesirable’ Amnesty International appeared first on Politico.
