The Sakharov Center was given a month to move out of the museum-apartment of the academician

Chairman of the Board of the Sakharov Center (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) Vyacheslav Bakhmin said that the center was given a month to move from the museum-apartment of Academician Andrei Sakharov on Zemlyanoy Val in Moscow. The center must leave other premises within three months. The Sakharov Center also owned the building of the center and the exhibition hall, which were also located on Zemlyanoy Val.

“We were given three months to pack up and move out from the date of notice. In addition to the apartment, for which we were given a month of everything,” Mr. Bakhmin told Interfax. Thus, the museum-apartment of Academician Sakharov must be vacated by February 24, the building of the center and the exhibition hall – by April 24.

January 24 Department of City Property of Moscow notified Sakharov Center on the termination of lease agreements for three premises in connection with the provisions of the legislation on foreign agents. According to Vyacheslav Bakhmin, it is impossible to appeal against this decision, since it is based on new legislative norms.

The lease of premises for the Sakharov Center was gratuitous and indefinite. The center received premises in 1993 and 1996. The Sakharov Center said that, despite the decision of the Moscow authorities, the center would have time to hold events for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Andrei Sakharov’s second wife, Elena Bonner, on February 15.

In 2014, the Sakharov Center was recognized as an NGO-foreign agent. This week, the Prosecutor General’s Office recognized the Andrei Sakharov Foundation (Andrei Sakharov’s Foundation, registered in the US) as an undesirable organization.

Anastasia Larina