As Novye Izvestia has already reported, on October 14, a group of unidentified men with closed faces burst into the building of the center recognized by the foreign agent “Memorial” in Karetny Ryad.
At the same time, Memorial hosted a screening of the film Gareth Jones by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. This is the story of the British journalist Jones, who came to the USSR in 1933 in the hope of interviewing Stalin and who secretly escaped from Moscow to Ukraine. Jones became the first Western reporter to write about the Holodomor in Ukraine. And in general, that in the Stalinist USSR, everything is far from being as good as the Soviet propaganda claims and how the leftists around the world would like to think.
The attackers on "Memorial" climbed onto the stage and began to shout in chorus "Shame" and "Down with fascism". The NTV film crew came with them.
The arrived police locked the visitors of the film screening and handed out questionnaires for entering personal data. The security forces also rudely pushed producer Yevgeny Gindilis into the building.
In addition, the police removed the fire alarm from the organization's office - they decided that she could shoot the video. Memorial's office cannot work without an alarm, since this is a violation of fire safety regulations.
All these events leave no doubt that they were carefully planned, including with the help of law enforcement agencies, and therefore caused an indignant reaction, and not only in the opposition environment, but also among all normal citizens.
Journalist Anton Orekh recalled that at the same time in Moscow there was a ceremony of awarding the most distinguished restaurants with a kind of quality mark - "Michelin stars":
“This is for you instead of mimic Michelin stars. Thugs attacked the show at the Memorial last night. The gopniks were released, the victims were locked up and their equipment was confiscated. Yes! I completely forgot! Memorial is a foreign agent! And whose agents are the thugs?"
Journalist Dmitry Kolezev directly calls the protesters "fascists":
"This is all the madness of 2021: thugs burst into the Memorial film screening and stage an openly fascist intimidation action, while" fascists "are shouting at people who have gathered to watch a film about the Holodomor ..."
Historian and public figure Vera Afanasyeva recalled that all this happened in the year of the 100th anniversary of Andrei Sakharov:
“First, stormtroopers come with a pogrom, then the police. Now this will happen all the time. "
The police seized computer equipment, turned off and seized fire and security alarms throughout the building. This means that the building is no longer suitable for use and this is, in fact, a raider seizure of Memorial.
The pogrom took place in the centenary year of Andrei Sakharov, who participated in the creation of the "Memorial" and was its honorary chairman.
Shame..."
The chairman of the Krasnoyarsk branch of Memorial, Alexey Babiy, described a short but very dramatic history of the existence of this society in Russia:
“Memorial has been operating for thirty years and three years, an epic period. And we have not changed, we are the same as then, and we did the same all the time, with the same goals and objectives. The state around us was changing. At first we were some kind of suspicious informals, then informals, but not suspicious, then disinterested heroes and all that, then we entered all sorts of councils, commissions and so on, then we became foreign agents and enemies of the people. They poured on us now shit, then oil, then again shit, then oil mixed with shit. And we are not going to change, we will do the same thing that we did for thirty years and three years..."
Ekho Moskvy radio station editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov with the words “We need to support Memorial” published on his page a request from this organization to Mayor Sobyanin to hold the traditional annual Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression at the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanskaya Square on October 30. I wonder if they will be allowed this year?
* Listed in the register of NPOs performing the functions of a foreign agent
“This is for you instead of mimic Michelin stars. Gopniks attacked the show at the Memorial last night. The gopniks were released, the victims were locked up and their equipment was confiscated. Yes! I completely forgot! Memorial is a foreign agent! And whose agents are the gopniks? "