The Moscow City Court satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Justice on the liquidation of the information and analytical center “Sova” (included in the register of foreign agents). Organizations with a 20-year history were charged with holding events outside the city of registration. Lawyers for Sova pointed out that until 2023 the Ministry of Justice did not consider this a violation. Human rights activists note that earlier the same pretext was used to liquidate the Moscow Helsinki Group.

As Kommersant reported, back in March, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court to liquidate the Sova information and analytical center. The agency was based on the results of an unscheduled audit in January. The Ministry of Justice recognized the holding of events outside the region of registration – Moscow as the main violation, since the Owl did not have an interregional or all-Russian status. As representatives of the center explained, the ministry had in mind “not only seminars or round tables in different cities, but also international conferences outside of Russia”, for example, participation in an online OSCE conference – a total of 24 such cases over the past three years. The Ministry of Justice called it “gross and irremediable” violations.

The SOVA Center was founded in 2002 with the support of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG). “Sova” studies “the problems of nationalism and xenophobia, the relationship between religion and society, political radicalism.” For 20 years of its work, the center has produced hundreds of reports and studies on these topics. Until 2016, SOVA repeatedly received grants from the President of the Russian Federation, and since 2012, the head of SOVA, Alexander Verkhovsky, was a member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights. But in 2016, the center was recognized as a foreign agent; in November 2022, Mr. Verkhovsky was expelled from the HRC.

The Moscow City Court considered the claim of the Ministry of Justice on April 27. Sova’s lawyer, Diana Sork, petitioned for a suspension of the process, indicating that the center is now challenging the legality of the Ministry of Justice’s check in the Gagarinsky District Court. She proposed to take a break until the conclusion of these proceedings. However, judge Vyacheslav Polyga refused.

Ms. Sork then pointed to a 2016 Justice Ministry audit. She recalled that the center had already participated in “out-of-town” events, but the Ministry of Justice did not consider this a violation. No changes in this regard have appeared in the law since then, the lawyer said and said that the ministry should have warned about the violation. However, an employee of the Ministry of Justice said that the 2016 inspection was not relevant to the case. According to Mediazona (included in the register of foreign agents), the representative of the ministry replied: “I can’t explain for those employees (who carried out the check in 2016. – Kommersant”).

During the meeting, an employee of the Ministry of Justice insisted: “If you have a regional public organization, it must operate within the region.”

Ms. Sork recalled that the Presidential Grants Foundation gave Sova a grant to hold an event outside of Moscow. Judge Polyga said that this was not relevant to the case, since the activities of the center, and not the fund, were being considered.

The head of the “Sova” Alexander Verkhovsky asked the representative of the Ministry of Justice, how the ministry proposes to participate in international events. He replied that the organization should have “structural divisions abroad”, otherwise “you should hold events there and should not participate in them.”

As a result, the judge satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Justice. Alexander Verkhovsky told Kommersant that SOVA would challenge the court’s decision and continue to work until it comes into force. “If we are already losing the appeal, which is quite likely, then the legal entity of the SOVA center will be liquidated. And at the moment when and if this decision comes into force, people working in the center will have to think about what to do next. Whether to continue activities and in what form, we will decide later,” he said.

Recall that in January, MHG was liquidated at the suit of the Ministry of Justice. The reason was the same – going beyond the borders of the region of registration.

Roman Kiselyov, head of human rights programs at the MHG, believes that this is a “new repressive practice” applied not only to political and human rights organizations.

“Recently, a court liquidated an association of circus actors, referring to the same principle of territoriality,” he said. “This situation creates a ripple effect that will spill over to other human rights and the most ordinary organizations.” Mr. Kiselyov also drew attention to the fact that this practice goes against the right of citizens to associate, enshrined in the Constitution. “I don’t know what kind of threat to society comes from the fact that an organization registered in Moscow carries out some actions in another region,” Mr. Kiselev said.