OVD-Info is one of Russia’s best-known human rights organizations, which has helped dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of Russians who have faced repression and violence at the hands of security forces. Since December 2011, the OVD-Info team has been supporting those facing political persecution and speaking out about repression in Russia. On June 4, Rosfinmonitoring presented the project to Move “Extremist” organizations, along with dozens of other structures, linking them to the Memorial organization, which was included on the same list in April. Meduza spoke with OVD-Info Director Alexander Polivanov about how his team plans to work further.
– When the Russian authorities declare an organization “extremist” or “terrorist,” this is always the last step on their part, which is an absolutely undesirable situation. Did you expect that such an action might affect OVD-Info?
“We thought about this when Memorial was declared an extremist organization.” They understood that this could happen in principle. But of course, it’s still pretty cool.
We are in no way connected with the memory. We are a completely different organization. Therefore, we were mindful that we risked being labeled as “extremists,” but we did not consider this risk to be very high.
However, the most likely and not the most obvious scenario has not materialized.
-If you took the risks into account, did you prepare in some way? what are you going to do?
“We have a protocol for how to act in this situation.” Who should do what in the first hour, who should do what in the next few hours, the first day, the first week, and so on. We have uncovered it and are walking along it. Having such a plan made the situation less emotional for us – people know how to react.
This is a difficult and toxic situation that will destroy our lives, but we will not stop. Repression in Russia continues, and we want it not to happen, which means we will act.
Caring for people, including those who have been associated with OVD-Info and worked in our organization, is of course our priority. This is what we think about first. But here I prefer not to talk about the details.
“OVD information” a promise Continue your work. The project team recommended that people living in or planning to travel to Russia not divert donations and remove reposts and links to OVD-Info materials. “It is still legal to follow us. Let’s stay in touch, we won’t give up so easily,” the project’s statement read.
— In the Rosfinmonitoring list, OVD-Info is indicated as one of the “structural departments” of Memorial, but you yourself say that you are not connected with it. In your opinion, why did the authorities decide to include you in Memorial? So, almost, you don’t have to worry about worrying about new things, or new papers?
– In the case of the Russian authorities, we are talking about a black box, so I have nothing to say here. At a meeting to recognize Memorial as an “extremist” organization. [9 апреля 2026 года] No lawyer was allowed in – it was locked, and so was that. Memorial does not know what is written in this resolution. We don’t know.
We also do not know how OVD-Info connected us and on what basis – we can only guess. It may have been a cunning operation of some kind, with one decision to recognize several organizations as extremists and terrorists, to cause them trouble, and to create further disturbances in their work.
Or maybe this is just some kind of negligence of a certain person who does not know that OVD-Info and Memorial are two different organizations. But I don’t want to guess and browse versions.
— What should people who support OVD-Info do now?
— Those who are in Russia and those traveling to Russia cannot donate to us. We long ago stopped paying in rubles, leaving only dollars and euros, but now we are asking people who continue to travel to Russia to refuse donations.
— What happens to the hotline you can turn to for legal support?
— We have temporarily disabled this bot and hotline. But we will continue our work, we just need to regroup now.
—And where can people go now, if necessary, while you haven’t regrouped yet?
— To other organizations and specific lawyers you trust. But now I don’t want to call anyone by name, so as not to “distort” their status.
He was interviewed Andrei Burtsev