Russian President Vladimir Putin’s effort to eliminate one of the country’s oldest human rights organizations is the latest indication that the authoritarian leader has revived many Soviet-era practices to crush civil society and tighten his grip on power, including persecuting dissidents and disseminating anti-Western propaganda. Russian state-owned media reported late last week that the Kremlin’s Justice Ministry has filed a lawsuit to dissolve the Russian Memorial Society. The group, known as Memorial, was founded in the latter years of the Soviet Union to document victims of political repression. Memorial’s leaders say the government has targeted the organization since 2012,...
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