The SK SOS Crisis Group Declared an ‘Extremist Organization’

The SK SOS Crisis Group Declared an ‘Extremist Organization’

This is stated in a letter received by SK SOS director David Isteev, the human rights organization reports.

The decision was made about a month ago, but SK SOS has not yet been added to the register of “extremist” organizations maintained by the Justice Ministry.

We had been expecting this decision for a long time and began restructuring our work from the moment the “international LGBT movement” was declared extremist. We turned off donations from Russian bank cards for people’s safety and reduced our activities on Russian territory: at present, we have neither volunteers nor staff inside the country. However, we will continue working in any case. Nothing changes for the people who come to us for help.

SK SOS is a human rights organization created in 2021. It helps LGBTQ+ people persecuted in the North Caucasus and those who have faced domestic violence. The human rights advocates have repeatedly reported on girls from Chechnya who fled their relatives. One of them was Seda Suleimanova, who was later detained by police officers in St. Petersburg. This happened in August 2023; where she has been since then is unknown.

@meduzalive