According to the organizers, today, on May 17, the Sakharov Center, entered by the Ministry of Justice in the register of non-profit organizations-foreign agents, planned to open the exhibition "Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov: Anxiety and Hope", which was expected to be placed in the form of street stands on Chistoprudny Boulevard to mark the centenary of the academician's birth", - reports The Insider.
"On March 23, we received a letter from the City Department of Culture about its readiness to provide photographic constructions on Chistoprudny Boulevard for the exhibition. The Sakharov Center sent a model of the exhibition to the Department on April 15. It consists only of Sakharov's photographs taken by prominent Soviet and Russian photographers, as well as quotes from memoirs, articles and speeches by Andrey Dmitrievich. The purpose of this approach was to create an atmosphere of direct dialogue between Muscovites and Sakharov", - said the organizers.
However, on April 30, a few hours before the end of the working day and the beginning of the May holidays, the organizers, as reported by The Insider, were orally informed that the content of the exhibition had not been agreed upon, although an official letter with a motivated decision signed by officials was never received. On May 14, the organizers received another verbal refusal with another version of it - allegedly, the photo constructions themselves were urgently needed for another exhibition, timed to coincide with the already past Victory Day and the anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, which is more than half a year away. On May 11, a letter was sent to the Moscow Department of Culture with a request to officially explain the reasons for the refusal.
“We consider both the decision itself, whoever made it, and the wording of the refusal to be unconvincing and shameful”, - the organizers noted, “Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov is not threatened by historical oblivion. But the future of the country, which by the hands of officials is trying to fence off the legacy of one of their best sons, runs the risk of being sad".
Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov (May 21, 1921, Moscow - December 14, 1989, Moscow) - Soviet theoretical physicist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, one of the creators of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb. Public figure, dissident and human rights activist; People's Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, author of the draft constitution of the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia. 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.