MOSCOW – They came, they say, to clear the debris-strewn cemetery of an abandoned village once inhabited by Lithuanians exiled to the area under Joseph Stalin, and to honor the memory of deceased relatives. They’re now charged, authorities say, with defacing the area and flouting Russian migration laws.
Prosecutors in the Perm region have launched criminal charges against members of a commemorative expedition organized in August by Memorial, a Russian NGO that documents victims of Stalin-era repression and hosts regular trips to sites of memory across the country.
“We’re shocked. Really shocked,” Vladas Ulinskas, a Lithuanian member of the group, told local media.