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Grigory Melkonyants at the Basmanny Court in Moscow, 18 June 2023 / Photo: Alexandra Astakhova for Mediazona
Members of the nationwide civic movement for the protection of voters’ rights, “Golos,” have faced pressure from the repressive machinery for many years. On 17 August 2023—shortly before the next regional elections in Russia—members of “Golos” were subjected to mass searches as part of a case regarding the organisation of activity of an “undesirable” organisation, and the movement’s co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, was placed in a remand centre as a suspect.
“Golos” is accused of ties with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organisations (ENEMO), which the Prosecutor General’s Office designated as “undesirable” in September 2021. Immediately after ENEMO’s activities were banned, “Golos” suspended its membership of the organisation. Among the “evidence” for ongoing ties between “Golos” and ENEMO, the authorities cite a certain “letter from the darknet.”
In 2011, “Golos” launched the “Map of Violations”—a project that enabled voters to report violations and falsifications during elections to the State Duma. That year, widespread abuses sparked major protests. In 2013, the “Golos” association became the first “foreign agent,” and in 2016 the Presnensky District Court in Moscow liquidated it following a claim by the Ministry of Justice. The “Golos” team, however, continued its work under the same name as a movement.
Amendments to “foreign agent” legislation allowed the authorities to continue persecuting “Golos” members. For example, in August 2021 the Ministry of Justice added the organisation to the register of unregistered public associations—“foreign agents”—and just over a month later designated 16 movement members as “foreign agents.”
After the start of the full-scale invasion, the movement’s website was blocked as part of military censorship, and many of its members faced searches as part of a case on “discrediting the army.” Although the criminal case was officially brought against observer Mikhail Gusev from Ivanovo, searches under it took place at movement members’ homes across the country.