Right Livelihood Award Laureate Condemns New Russian Law

Right Livelihood Award Laureate Condemns New Russian Law on “Foreign Agents”

Yesterday it became known that the U.S. development agency USAid will have to end its operations in Russia and its support for Russian civil society organisations on October 1.

Elena Zhemkova, director of the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, which received the Right Livelihood Award in 2004, strongly condemns the new “law for the regulation of the activity of non-profit organisations, acting as foreign agents”.

In a press release, Memorial calls the new law “illegal and amoral by its very nature”, adding that it “is aimed at the destruction of the Russian civil society”. Memorial announced that it will resist the implications of the law and take legal action if necessary. Zhemkova says: "We do believe that in the end the calm and persistence of the Russian civil society will be stronger than the sick fantasies of our legislators."

Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Award Foundation says: "The Putin administration is increasingly trying to intimidate human rights organisations in Russia. Because organisations like Memorial do not back down, the administration is now trying to cut off their funding. But even that will not silence Russian civil society."

Background

Memorial received the Right Livelihood Award in 2004 “...for showing, in traumatic times, the importance of understanding the historical roots of human rights abuse, to secure respect for them in the future”. Other Russian Laureates are The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia (1996) and the Chernobyl-critic and journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya (1992).

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are often referred to as ‘Alternative Nobel Prizes’. They were introduced “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.

This year's Laureates will be announced at a press conference in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Press Room, Stockholm, next Thursday, September 27th at 10 am CET, see press release.

Memorial's press release of September 21, 2012

in English (pdf)
in Russian (pdf)

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