Russia rights group boss fears post-election crackdown

Amsterdam (AFP) – The head of Memorial, Russia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group, has told AFP she fears a fresh crackdown after September's legislative elections, with more people arrested and sent to fight in Ukraine.

Speaking in an exclusive interview in Amsterdam, Elena Zhemkova also vowed to keep up the fight for human rights in Russia, despite her group being declared illegal and herself forced into exile.

"Unfortunately, I think that now everything is getting worse, but not so fast," the 65-year-old said. "But after the elections, there will be a very sharp deterioration."

Last month, Russia's Supreme Court banned the only anti-war party, Yabloko, from running in the elections, where opposition to President Vladimir Putin will be minimal.

"More people will be arrested for insignificant things and sent to prison. They are interested in sending people to prison. For them prison is a way to the front (line in the war against Ukraine)," she said.

"The situation at the front is very fragile."

Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document victims of Soviet-era political repression during which millions of people perished in the Gulag penal system.

Earlier this year, a court labelled the group "extremist", making its supporters subject to prosecution and effectively outlawing any cooperation with it.

Memorial group received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 -- months after Russia launched its offensive on Ukraine -- alongside jailed Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties.

Zhemkova herself has fled the country and keeps the organisation running from Berlin where she acts as executive director.

"The more they try to silence or erase the name of Memorial in Russia, the louder it will sound outside Russia," she promised.

Zhemkova was speaking on the sidelines of an exhibition entitled "Artists Against the Kremlin: Memory Remains", at the De Balie cultural centre in Amsterdam.

The exhibition features work from artists forced into exile, silenced or persecuted and Zhemkova said it was a good example of Memorial's work outside Russia.

"If we don't understand and take lessons from the past, we will repeat mistakes and our present and future will be terrible," she said.

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