Authorities forcibly evicted a prominent Russian human rights organisation from its office in the early hours of Saturday in a raid its director said he believed was ordered by officials in President Vladimir Putin’s administration.
Group’s head says he was dragged, kicked
For Human Rights is one of the best-known of the hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which have been subjected to state inspections under a law Putin signed last year requiring NGOs with foreign funding to register as “foreign agents”.
The West views the legislation and inspections as aimed at intimidating activists and silencing criticism of Putin.
Putin, who has accused Western governments of using NGOs to spy on Russia and influence the political situation, says the law is needed to ensure transparency and that the checks are to enforce legal compliance.
The US ambassador Michael McFaul tweeted yesterday that “the USA is concerned about reports of the forcible seizure of the office of the NGO For Human Rights,” adding that this was “another case of intimidating civil society”.
Riot police and Moscow mayor’s office representatives entered the building housing the office of For Human Rights at about 2am on Saturday, ejecting at least six employees and supporters, said group director Lev Ponomaryov.
“They treated us very roughly. I was dragged across the floor and then kicked,” the 72-year-old said by telephone. He and five others were taken by ambulance to a first-aid clinic with bruises and scrapes, but none were kept.
A Moscow government property official, Maxim Gaman, told state-run news agency RIA on Friday that For Human Rights was being evicted because its lease on the city-owned premises had run out in February and had been terminated on May 27.
About a dozen people gathered to protest outside the building on Saturday, undisturbed by the police.
Ponomaryov said the group had not received an eviction notice. It might have been motivated by the group’s refusal to give prosecutors documents demanded under the foreign agents law.
“I don’t know if Putin is behind it but there must have been a decision at a very high level, in the Kremlin,” he said. He also blamed Kremlin-appointed mayor Sergei Sobyanin for the eviction.