Memorial
At the moment the Russian state authorities are aspiring to close down the
NGO Memorial by applying to the Supreme Court. According to authorities the
case with Memorial is based on the regulation within the so called “law on foreign
agents” which should be seen as anti-democratic and repressive towards the NGO
sector.
Memorial was formed during the Glasnost and Perestrojka period of the 80’s
and among the formers was the Soviet dissident, scientist and political activist
Andrej Saharov. The NGO was from beginning working with dealing with the past
by providing information about the victims of the Stalin regime. Since then
Memorial has been working with the victims of the wars in Chechnya and other HR
issues. Memorial also received in 2009 the Andrej Saharov price.
This just one more example of Russia developing into a more repressive, authoritarian and nationalistic society instead of providing basic human and citizen rights
to its citizens. As ALDE MEP Marietje Schaake expressed in the party statement:
The government of the Russian
federation should at the very least adhere to agreements it has itself made, in
the context of the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Court of Human
rights, and of course its own constitution. We see a clear difference between
ill guided Kremlin policies and the population of Russia and we support their
aspiration for a just, democratic and free Russia.
Sanctions and future EU-Russia relations
As ALDE MEP Hans van Baalen said
in the middle of July : More sanctions
are the only way
to keep Russia on the right side of the Ukrainian border . However sanctions are not a long term solution and
Russia cannot be politically isolated. The long term solution should be that EU
could have a common policy for EU-Russia relations since at the moment not even
Germany has any authentic strategy for foreign policy towards Kreml. At the
moment it is a challenge for the Union that some member states see Russia as a
enemy or threat while others see it as economic partner.
Another approach could be to empower cooperation with pro-European
parties in Russia such as Jablako. The party , which is strong in big cities, is
at the moment of war against Ukraine and all the crisis aspiring for Russia to
be more democratic and integrated with the EU. Eventual integration in the
future would also mean that Russia should need to aspire to become a democratic
state and society again. After all Putins party is cooperating with several
parties is Europe which are usually described as anti-immigration, racist, xenophobic,
homophobic and nationalist parties. It is not only about which Europe we as citizens
want to have but also which future we want to see between EU and Russia.
