It is now banned in Russia. The foundation of American actor George Clooney and his wife, lawyer Amal Clooney, which fights for justice and equality, has been declared “undesirable”, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Monday, August 19. The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) “conducts extensive work aimed at discrediting Russia, actively supports false patriots and members of banned extremist and terrorist groups”, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Founded in 2016, the CFJ “actively investigates war crimes in Ukraine, monitors sham trials of women and journalists, and fights against a global trend of authoritarianism that seeks to punish those who tell the truth,” its website explains. Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the CFJ has also “collected evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by Russia in Ukraine, and aims to “initiate criminal prosecutions and bring justice to survivors.” Faced with these actions, the Russian prosecutor general denounced an attempt to discredit the Russian government. “Under the guise of humanitarian ideas, these activists […] “are pushing forward criminal prosecution initiatives against the highest Russian authorities,” he said. The Clooney Foundation for Justice has not yet responded.
A long series of repressions
Last June, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, also mocked on X the actor’s foundation, calling him “mediocre.” “Clooney is using his foundation to hunt down and persecute Russian journalists. But our journalists, who are highly trained, will find him first and give him ‘a night in hell,'” he threatened, referring to one of the actor’s films.
This ban is part of a long series of repressions against dissident voices, denouncing the abuses committed by the Russian army. In May 2015, a law on “undesirable organizations”, of which the CFJ was a victim, gave the Russian authorities the power to ban foreign or international organizations if they are considered a threat to the constitutional order of the country, its defense capabilities or the security of the State. In total, 140 organizations appear on this blacklist, among them the American organization Freedom House or the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation last August, an association which also works to promote democracy.