Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading election stands in a cage behind the glass in a courtroom in Moscow, on Aug. 18.Alexander Zemlianichenko/The Associated Press
A Moscow judge has formally arrested and detained one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on suspicion of being involved with an “undesirable” organization, his lawyer said Friday.
The case against Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, is the latest in the months-long crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine.
Melkonyants’ was charged and detained Thursday in Moscow and appeared in the city’s Basmanny District Court on Friday where a judge arrested him, his lawyer told The Associated Press. Russian media report he has been detained until Oct. 17. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
Golos has not been labelled “undesirable” – a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offence. But it was once a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a group that was declared undesirable in Russia in 2021.
Melkonyants’ apartment in Moscow was raided Thursday and police raided the homes of a further 14 Golos members in eight cities, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
In an interview with the AP Thursday, David Kankiya, a governing council member at Golos, linked the pressure on the group to Russia’s upcoming regional elections in September and the presidential election that is expected to take place in the spring of 2024. “We see this as a form of political pressure and an attempt to stifle our activities in Russia,” Kankiya said.
Golos was founded in 2000 and has since played a key role in independent monitoring of elections in Russia. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities. In 2013, the group was designated as a “foreign agent” – a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Three years later, it was liquidated as a non-governmental organization by Russia’s Justice Ministry.
Golos has continued to operate without registering as an NGO, exposing violations at various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of “foreign agents,” created by the Justice Ministry for groups that are not registered as a legal entity in Russia.
Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years and that has intensified significantly since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down. Activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges.