MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld an administrative lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry's Moscow department seeking to close the Sakharov Center, which is recognized as a foreign agent in Russia, the court's representative told Interfax on Friday.
"The claim filed by the Justice Ministry's Moscow department has been upheld," the court's representative said.
Under the court's ruling, the Public Commission to Protect the Legacy of Andrei Sakharov, a regional public organization recognized as a foreign agent in Russia, has been closed and will be removed from the state register of legal entities.
According to the claim, "systematic, massive and irreparable violations of the law" were found during a probe into the work of the Sakharov Center.
In particular, the Justice Ministry believes the organization breached the regional operations principle by holding events (in particular the "Andrei Sakharov, a Man of his Epoch" mobile exhibit) in regions where it did not have any branches. The ministry also said the Sakharov Center had published video materials on its website without indicating its foreign agent status, which it was repeatedly subjected to administrative liability for. The Justice Ministry also found irregularities in the organization's founding documents.
Representatives of the Sakharov Center denied the violations found by the Justice Ministry and asked the Moscow City Court to throw out the lawsuit.
The Sakharov Center was created in 1996. The organization was included in the register of foreign agent NGOs in 2014.
In January 2023, the center received a notice about the termination of the free lease contracts for all of its premises from the Moscow authorities. The decision was made in accordance with the law On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence, which took effect on December 1, 2022, and which prohibits foreign agents from receiving any kind of state support.
The Sakharov Center vacated Apartment 62 in the building on Zemlyanoi Val, where Academician Andrei Sakharov's archives were located, by March 1.
In spring 2023, it was reported that an extraordinary inspection of the center's work had taken place following a corresponding request made by State Duma MP Andrei Lugovoi.