We will continue to fight,” said Russian human rights activist Henri Reznik today as a Moscow court ordered the closure of the famous “Moscow Helsinki Group” (MHG). With today’s political ruling, Russia’s oldest human rights organization has now been banned from any activity, following the prohibition of numerous human rights organizations and civil society groups in Russia in recent years, including last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners Memorial and ourselves, then DRA, in June 2021.

The Helsinki Group was founded in Moscow in 1976 by Soviet dissidents, including Andrei Sakharov, with the aim of “promoting compliance with the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Final Act”. After years of persecution, it resumed its work in the late 1980s during perestroika and produced highly regarded annual reports on the human rights situation in Russia.

Today’s decision is another demonstrative rejection by the Russian leadership and its accomplices in the judiciary of compliance with internationally recognized human rights, which Russia has also ratified. Instead, the Russian regime is tightening its repressive course against the independent civil society in its own country. Currently, over 500 people are detained as political prisoners alone, a fact that the Russian diaspora reminded the world of with protests last weekend. In Berlin, Austausch e.V. was also among the speakers.

On the occasion of the forced liquidation of the Moscow Helsinki Group, we at Austausch e.V. protest once again against the anti-democratic path of violence that the Russian leadership is taking by holding other countries and its own population hostage. And we express our solidarity with our long-standing colleagues affected by today’s ban. The personal encounters with their former chairpersons Larisa Bogoraz and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, as well as cooperation with the MHG within the multilateral human rights alliance Civic Solidarity Platform, are of great importance to us. And it is no coincidence that this alliance is based on the framework of the OSCE – the international organization that emerged from the impetus of the Helsinki Accords of 1975 and has been blocked by the Russian leadership and delegation for years.

The work of the MHG is of fundamental value to Russia and must be further supported domestically and internationally, as well as the many informal civic initiatives and remaining independent NGOs. This is also true considering that not least the suppression of democratic civil society and the expulsion or destruction of its key institutions under Vladimir Putin paved the way for the brutal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine – against which the world community, together with Ukraine, must decisively and fundamentally rebel today. This too is a commitment to the legacy of Helsinki.

At the same time, we know: Even bans will not deter people from standing up for their rights and the observance of human dignity. This is what the staff members of the Moscow Helsinki Group and many other human rights and civil society groups stand for, including upright lawyers, journalists, artists, and scientists. Henri Reznik announced that he and his fellow activists will appeal against today’s decision. And he expressed confidence that the day will come when the Moscow Helsinki Group will officially resume its work in Russia.