RUSSIA. Moscow. 25 November 2021.

Priests wait during the hearing at the Supreme Court in Moscow where they came to support Memorial, one of Russia’s most prominent human rights groups, after a Russian prosecutor called on the court to abolish it as part of a comprehensive crackdown on all such groups in the country.

As "enemies of the people", about 200,000 clergy were killed during the approximately 60 years of communist rule in the former Soviet Union. Some priests, such as Archpriest Oleg Batov, came to the defense of Memorial because it helped with the investigation of Soviet crimes on the Russian Orthodox Church and complain. They believe that not only ordinary priests, but also official representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church should speak out in support of the Memorial society.