Rights Organizations Accuse Russia of Persecuting Museum Director

MOSCOW—Rights organizations have criticized the Russian government for its treatment of Sakharov Museum director Yuri Samodurov, whom it has condemned for inciting “religious hatred” and “offending human dignity” when he mounted the 2007 exhibition “Forbidden Art,” reports Agence France-Presse.

“The Russian authorities are irritated at the social and political activity of the Sakharov Museum,” said Lev Ponomarev, executive director of the group For Human Rights. “This accusation against Yuri Samodurov is connected with the constituent assembly of a new democratic movement which could be held in the Sakharov Museum.”

"Forbidden Art” comprised works that other museum directors deemed to be too shocking for display the previous year. The art was visible only by peeping through small holes in a wall, and the exhibition is said to have outraged members of the Russian Orthodox Church.