Russian Gulag museum forced to shut by authorities
(Artdaily.org)

A Russian museum dedicated to the Gulag has been forced to close, its director said Friday, in the latest case of authorities putting pressure on those researching the Soviet-era camps. `We no longer have access to the museum, and yesterday there was an attempt to seize the exhibits, probably at the request of the town hall,` Nikolai Arakcheyev, director of the institute in Yoshkar-Ola, western Russia, told AFP. A source in the local culture ministry told AFP on condition of anonymity that the building had been closed because it was in a state of disrepair and was `a danger to visitors`. The ministry was not immediately able to provide a comment on the record. The