Russia on Thursday banned the human rights organization Memorial, which will be awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, and raided the offices of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Memorial and Novaya Gazeta, both founded around the collapse of the Soviet Union, are the two most respected and recognized Russian organizations reporting and documenting human rights violations. Since sending troops into Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has not only cracked down on opposition to the war but also launched a broader campaign against dissent, something not seen since Soviet times. Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document the victims of the political repression of that period, in which millions of people perished in the Gulag penal system.
War Ukraine – Russia, live, breaking news | Putin announces ceasefire with Ukraine for Orthodox Easter this weekend
