Prosecutors start audit of Memorial anti-discrimination center in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG. March 26 (Interfax) – Prosecutors are conducting an audit on Tuesday in the Memorial anti-discrimination center in St. Petesrburg.

“The audit is continuing. We are writing an explanatory letter. The procedures are being conducted in a calm and matter of fact manner. There is something connected with extremism behind the audit,” Memorial Director Olga Abramenko told Interfax.

Meanwhile, the rights center Memorial, to which the anti-discrimination center is a partner, told Interfax that prosecutors launched audits in the city on February 18. “No one has visited us, so far. Waiting…” the rights center Memorial told Interfax.

The city prosecutor’s office earlier told Interfax that checks will be conducted within a month on some of the 5,000 nonprofit organizations based in the city. Various agencies and nongovernmental organizations will be checked on possible links to extremists, terrorists, and also on whether they observe sanitary-epidemiological and fire safety regulations.

Prosecutors and tax officials inspected the rights organizations Civil Control, Independent Social Studies Center and the Center for the Development of Nonprofit organizations on Thursday. Still earlier checks had been conducted on the environmental protection organization Belona and the LGBT organization Vykhod.