MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Moscow on Wednesday ruled to shut down Russia’s oldest human rights organization, in the latest move amid a months-long, relentless crackdown on independent media, rights groups and opposition activists.
The Moscow City Court sustained the petition of Russia’s Justice Ministry to close the Moscow Helsinki Group. The ministry has accused the organization of violating its legal registration in Moscow by working on human rights cases outside the Russian capital, accusations the group denounced as “minute and absurd.”
The Moscow Helsinki Group was founded in 1976 and demanded freedom for political prisoners and establishment of democratic rights.
One of the group’s founders was Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a human rights pioneer and dissident who challenged the Soviet and Russian regimes for decades. In 2017, on her 90th birthday, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid her a visit to personally congratulate her and thank her for her work. She died in 2018.