European diplomats stand in remembrance as political repression deepens in Russia
Norway was among a dozen European countries paying tribute to victims of political repression at Moscow’s Solovetsky Stone memorial. The monument stands beside Lubyanka, the former headquarters and prison of the Soviet secret police, now home to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
“The problem is that the Solovetsky Stone is being politicised,” said Valery Fadeyev, head of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights, in an interview with state-influenced news agency RBC. He was asked why he was advocating the monument’s removal from Lubyanka Square.
“Yesterday, diplomats from countries that are effectively at war with us – Western countries that supply weapons, intelligence and so on – came again. Why are they even coming there?” Fadeyev asked rhetorically.
He continued: “It’s politicking, a cheap game – blaming current FSB officers for the sins of others, and then blaming us.”
Fadeyev argued that the stone should instead be moved to the Wall of Grief, a memorial unveiled by Vladimir Putin in 2017 to commemorate victims of political repression under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Russia marks the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression every year on 30 October. The day honours the millions of people executed, imprisoned or sent to forced labour camps under Soviet rule.
Unlike diplomats from about a dozen EU member states, who gathered at the Solovetsky Stone on 29 October, Norway held its commemoration on the official day of remembrance.
“The Embassy laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone today [30 October], on the official day of remembrance,” Minister-Counsellor Bjørn Svenungsen of the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow told the Barents Observer.
“The Embassy also took part in a memorial ceremony at Butovo Cemetery today, honouring the victims,” Svenungsen said.
The cemetery is located on the site of a former NKVD shooting range, where Stalin’s secret police carried out mass executions. Between August 1937 and October 1938, a total of 20,765 people were shot there.
By laying flowers at both the Solovetsky Stone, next to Lubyanka, and Butovo Cemetery, the Norwegian Embassy honoured the victims in two complementary ways: acknowledging the crimes of the Soviet state while paying tribute to those executed at Butovo.
In today's Russia, commemorating the terror of the Soviet era is closely intertwined with debates about contemporary political repression under Vladimir Putin.
The number of political prisoners in Russia continues to rise. On 30 October, the EU reported that more than 1,800 people were being held as political prisoners. Meanwhile, a recent monitoring report by the human rights organisation Memorial points to a shift in the targets and methods of political repression, including a sharp increase in prosecutions linked to support for banned organisations.
In April 2026, Memorial itself was designated an “extremist organisation” by Russia’s Supreme Court.
