Russia labels Azov Regiment as terrorist organization

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation satisfied the request filed by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to designate the Ukrainian Azov Regiment as a terrorist organization and ban its activities in Russia.

As Interfax informs, the court hearing was held partly behind closed doors. The court read out the final part of the decision. According to the ruling, "the decision to ban the organization's activities is subject to immediate execution."

Director of the Historical Memory Foundation, Russian propagandist Aleksandr Diukov, journalist and member of the President's Human Rights Council Marina Akhmedova, "human rights defender" Georgiy Volkov, director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy Problems Maksim Grigoriev acted as experts in the open part. In particular, Volkov claimed that cannibalism was practiced in the regiment.

Currently, Russia’s Investigative Committee considers a number of criminal cases fabricated against the Azov Regiment members.

The Azov Battalion was created in 2014 as a volunteer formation. Subsequently, it was reformatted into a regiment and became part of the regular Ukrainian army. Its members took part in the defense of Mariupol in spring of 2022. Several hundred soldiers surrendered.

At the end of July, 50 Azov fighters were killed in an explosion in a penal facility where they had been held captive.

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