Memorial chief fears Russia post-election crackdown

Elena Zhemkova, the head of Russia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group Memorial, told AFP she fears a fresh crackdown after September's legislative elections, including more arrests and people being sent to fight in Ukraine.

Speaking in Amsterdam, Zhemkova said conditions in Russia were worsening and predicted “a very sharp deterioration” after the elections.

“More people will be arrested for insignificant things and sent to prison,” she said. “For them prison is a way to the front.”

Zhemkova, 65, has left Russia and runs Memorial from Berlin. She said the group would keep working for human rights despite being declared illegal in Russia.

Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document victims of Soviet-era political repression. Earlier this year, a court labelled the group “extremist”, making its supporters vulnerable to prosecution and effectively outlawing cooperation with it.

The group received the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize alongside jailed Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties.

Zhemkova spoke on the sidelines of an Amsterdam exhibition called “Artists Against the Kremlin: Memory Remains”, which features work by artists forced into exile, silenced or persecuted.

She also accused Russian authorities of rewriting history, pointing to a plan to replace Moscow's Gulag museum with an exhibition on Nazi crimes against the Soviet Union during World War II.

Zhemkova said she remained hopeful because of the bravery of campaigners and the creative protests of artists outside Russia.