The Moscow City Court upheld the decision to seize real estate from Memorial

On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court considered an appeal against the decision to seize real estate from the Scientific Information and Educational Center (NIPTs) “Memorial”. Previously, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow on the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office acknowledged fictitious transfer of the NIPTs as a donation of the building in Karetny Ryad from the “International Memorial” (liquidated by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation). We are talking about the premises in the center of the capital, which belonged to Memorial since the mid-1990s and which stores archives, including those of victims of Soviet repressions.

Memorial’s lawyer Marina Agaltsova, speaking at the appeal hearing, pointed out that the decision of the court of first instance was “absolutely unfounded and based on arbitrariness.” “Yes, NIPTs and International Memorial are related legal entities, but the court did not prove that the deal was imaginary,” she explained to the court.

The decision of the Tverskoy Court used the term “sham transaction”, but according to the defense, only that transaction “which is not aimed at legal consequences” can be considered “imaginary” (Article 170 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The educational center “really uses the property, which houses the library and 300 thousand copies of the archives.”

A representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office objected that “International Memorial was practically liquidated at the time of the transfer of the building, which is why the court recognized the deal as imaginary and invalid.” The plaintiff also pointed out that when making the decision, the Tverskoy Court “applied a special rule”: the property of a foreign agent, which International Memorial was recognized before liquidation, should be “converted to the benefit of the state”. In the Moscow City Court, this position was supported by representatives of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the judicial board also agreed with them – the premises in the Karetny Ryad should be vacated in the near future.

“What is happening is a raider seizure of the premises and complete chaos,” Ms. Agaltsova told Kommersant after the meeting. “Of course, we intend to file a cassation appeal as soon as we get the decision of the Moscow City Court. With regards to the library and archives, everything will be placed where no one will find them, there will be no access to them, now the most important thing is to preserve the entire volume of materials.”

Note that Art. 20 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Non-Commercial Organizations” states that creditors can first claim the property of a liquidated organization; after satisfying their requirements, it can be directed to the goals defined in the charter of the NPO. Only if it is impossible to use the premises for statutory purposes, it turns into state revenue.

Kommersant’s interlocutors from the expert legal community previously emphasized that the lawsuit of the Prosecutor General’s Office initially did not substantiate the reasons why the property could not be transferred for statutory purposes. This issue was not considered by the Moscow City Court on February 8, the court only agreed with the position of the court of first instance, leaving the decision in force.

Maria Starikova