Co-chair of Russian election watchdog Golos detained ahead of elections

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chairperson of the Movement in Defence of Voter's Rights "Golos", the largest citizen election observers network in Russia, was sentenced to two months in a pre-trial detention center. He is accused of organizing the activities of an "undesirable" NGO (allegedly, ENEMO - European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations) and may face imprisonment for two to six years.

On the morning of August 17, his apartment in Moscow was searched, followed by interrogation all day long. Melkonyants spent the night in a temporary detention center.

Also on August 17, searches of the "Golos" activists were carried out in several regions. At least part of them is related to the criminal case "on organizing the work (participation in the work) of an undesirable organization". Some Golos coordinators were questioned as witnesses in this criminal case.

Golos has recently started observation of elections to be held on September 10, and published two reports that Russian officials consider “discreditation of the election campaign“. Links to both reports you will find at the end of this text.

REM publishes all the facts that are known by now, as well as comments from current and former Golos leadership, experts and officials.

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Searches in at least seven regions

In Moscow, in addition to Melkonyants, searches took place:

- at Vladimir Egorov’s apartment, Golos coordinator and editor-in-chief of the Vremya news agency. Egorov was taken for questioning, then charged with disobeying the police and got 15 days of administrative arrest. It remains unclear if he is on trial in the new criminal case on “undesirable organization”, and, if yes, in what capacity.

- at the house of human rights defender Vladimir Zhilkin. After the search, he was taken to a trauma center, and from there to the investigator for questioning. After the interrogation, Zhilkin said he was considered a witness in the case on cooperation with an undesirable organization. According to Zhilkin himself, he was repeatedly told to “calm down, disappear and stay out of the way”.

In St. Petersburg, Golos member Polina Kostyleva has been searched. The police seized all her equipment and her cell phone. Kostyleva, however, reported that she is not under investigation in this new criminal case.

In Voronezh, ex-coordinator of Golos Vladislav Khodakovsky was searched, with his laptop seized. Blogger Pavel Sychev was also questioned and searched as a witness in the “undesirable organization” case. According to him, he has never cooperated with Golos.

In Veliky Novgorod, a candidate for the City Duma elections from the Yabloko party Ksenia Cherepanova was searched. The politician was taken away from her apartment. Later it was revealed that she is under investigation as a witness in the case of an undesirable organization.

In Kirov, a member of the Council of the Golos movement Denis Shadrin was searched. Later the OVD-info reported that the interrogation in Center “E” was connected to the case on “undesirable organization” and he is being under investigation as a witness. Shadrin's wife and mother were also searched and questioned as witnesses.

In Ryazan, a Golos representative Sofia Ivanova was searched and interrogated for eight hours, also in relation to the new criminal case.

In Chelyabinsk, two Golos activists were searched:

- the co-chairman of Golos Yuri Gurman

- Natalya Guseva, a representative of Chelyabinsk-based Golos.

The search at Guseva’s place is unrelated to the case on ”undesirable organization”, Guseva’s attorney Oleg Stepanov told the OVD-Info. He added that a new case was opened against her, on ”fakes” about the Russian army.

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Reactions from Russia

On the day of August 17, current and present leadership of the movement, experts and officials reacted to the new case of “Golos”. REM collected some of their comments.

Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chairman of Golos, on the air of Dozhd TV channel:

“The searches are directly related to the elections - we have three and a half weeks left before the single voting day and four months before the start of the presidential campaign. The current searches at Golos fit into the trend of the last year to minimize the ability of people to control elections”.

Andreychuk also admitted that Golos members have already faced administrative prosecution for “cooperation” with ENEMO: “Nevertheless, we have previously had several trials in administrative cases from activists, including those not very connected with Golos - they were found guilty of collaborating with this organization as Golos activists”, Andreychuk said.

Roman Udot, former co-chairperson and member of the Council of the Golos movement (2013-2023), talked to SOTA:

“The criminal article is very formidable, while the allegations are completely untrue. The European observer network ENEMO was declared "undesirable" in Russia in October 2021, and after that Golos had to immediately cut off any contact with it.

However, even before that, they were limited to invitations to foreign elections 1-2 times a year with the participation of 2-3 Golos activists. Such invitations had nothing to do with Russia and were distributed equally among about 30 organizations from different countries,” Udot said.

Alexander Kynev, political scientist, wrote on his Telegram channel:

"All this has no practical benefit for the authorities. [lt]...[gt] On the contrary, it discredits the elections more than any observers themselves. Abnormal election figures discredit the elections themselves. [lt]...[gt] This story is about the accountability of law enforcers who fulfill the plan and need to report. Probably, the goal is to completely shut down the movement of independent observers for the presidential elections.

This shows that all the moaning [about] "there are no elections in Russia", etc. is a highly harmful lie by political impotents who justify their inactivity. This whining only helps the authorities and reduces society's chances for development. Even in the conditions of competition restrictions, there is still a choice. Yes, it is limited and specific, but it is there”.

On the same day, Vasily Piskarev, Chairman of the State Duma Commission for Investigation of Foreign State Interference in Russia's Internal Affairs, revealed the real reasons behind the new attack on Golos:

"The Commission's monitoring group found that in the run-up to the elections, the Golos movement, recognized as a "foreign agent", issued a series of reports discrediting the election campaign. The materials contain tendentious conclusions about the impossibility of fair elections in Russia, pseudo-experts criticize the Russian electoral legislation and question the procedure of remote electronic voting on far-fetched grounds. Behind these "expert" fabrications are solid financial support and grants from traditional foreign sources. The distribution of Golos materials is coordinated by a network of foreign media projects, non-governmental organizations and other foreign agents”, the Commission's Telegram channel says.

Later on, the Chairperson of the Central Election Committee Ella Pamfilova also commented on the detention of Grigory Melkonyants:

“I really want to hope that it will be sorted out objectively. Because his often professional criticism has sometimes helped us a lot”, replied Pamfilova to Vedomosti.

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Summaries of both mentioned Golos reports are available on our website in English:

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