The Russian authorities are closing down and outlawing the country’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group. For several decades the Moscow Helsinki Group has worked to protect people and the country from lawlessness, but now lawlessness has become the law. The Moscow Helsinki Group has always advocated dialogue with the authorities, but the current authorities communicate only among themselves and have no need of dialogue with anyone.
The Moscow Helsinki Group is inseparable from Russia’s recent history – the regime has erased the country’s history. The Moscow Helsinki Group has not only defended human rights. It has set an example of fortitude and faithfulness to the principles of humanism and dignity. It stood up to the forces of darkness and war, it proved every day that it is possible to act and remain human in any situation. And it will continue to do so! The Moscow Helsinki Group is not bank accounts or premises. It is not the ‘legal entity.’ The Moscow Helsinki Group is people who believe in their fellow countrymen and women and in their country. These are people who cannot be intimidated. These are people who cannot be forced to give up the fight.
Dear friends, we have always followed your work with admiration and we are sure that you will prevail. We are all in great need of you! Good luck and strength to you!
Members of the Russian Anti-War Committee
- Sergei Aleksashenko, economist
- Marat Gelman, galerist
- Leonid Gozman, politician, psychologist
- Dmitry Gudkov, politician
- Sergei Guriev, economist
- Boris Zimin, entrepreneur
- Mikhail Kasyanov, politician, former Prime Minister of Russia
- Mikhail Kokorich, entrepreneur, engineer
- Elena Lukyanova, lawyer
- Yury Pivovarov, historian, member of Russian Academy of Sciences
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, public figure
- Evgeny Chichvarkin, entrepreneur