George and Amal Clooney’s charity has been banned in Russia after it was accused of using “Hollywood-scale activities” to “discredit” the country.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice, founded by the actor and human rights lawyer, was deemed “undesirable” by authorities in Moscow.
In a statement, Kremlin prosecutors said: “Under the guise of humanitarian ideas, these ‘fighters for justice’… fueled criminal investigations against the highest Russian authorities.”
It came just three months after Anna Neistat, the foundation’s legal adviser, said the foundation should prosecute “Russian propagandists” in the West.
The Kremlin claimed at the time that the foundation was on a “legal safari targeting Russian journalists” – which Clooney denied.
George and Amal Clooney’s (pictured in 2022) charity has been banned in Russia after allegations the foundation used “Hollywood-scale activities” to “discredit” the country
In a statement, Kremlin prosecutors said: “Under the guise of humanitarian ideas, these ‘warriors for justice’… promoted criminal investigations against the highest Russian authorities.” Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 19
The prosecutors also derided Ms. Clooney’s record as a human rights lawyer known for her handling of high-profile cases, including the ISIS genocide of the Yazidis, calling her “someone who considers herself a lawyer in international law.”
George Clooney distanced himself from Neistat’s comments, saying that “someone at our foundation made a slip of the tongue.” He then added, “We at the Clooney Foundation would never go after journalists, even if we disagree with them.”
Russia’s law against “undesirable organizations” lay dormant for much of the past decade, until the Kremlin began using it to outlaw and expel opponents of those organizations from the country.
American think tanks and Russian media organizations in exile, such as the Dozhd TV channel, have previously been labeled as “undesirable.”
The “undesirable” status has had particularly painful consequences for media outlets such as the news website Meduza, which stopped offering subscriptions to Russian residents and crowdfunding in Russia.
The reason for this was that Kremlin actions meant that a simple transfer of money could land a donor in jail.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice does not have an office in Russia.
Andrei Pivovarov, one of the Russians released earlier this month in a prisoner swap between Russia and the US, was serving a four-year prison sentence for working for an “undesirable organization”.
He worked at an NGO founded by opposition activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a businessman who was Russia’s richest man in 2003 but now lives in exile in London.