According to Russian agencies, the only childcare dog for independent Russia elections was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of having worked with an “undesirable” organization.
Grigory Melkonyants, co-founder of the Golos Russian elections surveillance group, was imprisoned in 2023 after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and led a large repression at home. Accused of “the organization of the activities of an undesirable organization”, Mr. Melkonyants, 44, pleaded not guilty when he opened his trial last September.
On Wednesday, he was found guilty by a court in Moscow and sentenced to five years in a prison colony, said his lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, New York Times. Mr. Biryukov said he was planning to appeal, calling the verdict “politically motivated”.
“Don’t worry, I don’t lose hope,” Melkonyants told supporters and the press in the courtroom after the verdict, independent Russian media reported Mediazona.
Golos, which was founded in 2000 and documented generalized electoral fraud, was described as “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities in 2013. But the accusations against Mr. Melkonyants relate to the previous affiliation of the group with the European network of elections surveillance organizations, which the Russian authorities declared “undesirable” in 2021 – making an association with potential crime. Golos said that he had ended his participation with the association following the decision.
The “undesirable” label was used to ban unwanted groups, including NGOs and media organizations, and reprimands dissent. But Mr. Melkonyers was apolitical, said Roman Udot, a longtime colleague who has lived in exile.
He noted that, while countless civilian activists fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Melkonyants insisted on the spot and focus on his expertise, without taking sides.
Leonid Volkov, a close partner of Mr. Navalny, sentenced the verdict on Wednesday.
“Golos gave birth to a movement to monitor massive elections in Russia in 2011, then the demonstrations began, which gave Putin a fear: so many years have passed-and he always seeks to take revenge,” he wrote on social networks.
After having shown pressure from the Russian authorities, Golos was appointed foreign agent in 2013. But it was only after the war in Ukraine triggered that Russia’s security services repressed stronger for the group.
After his arrest, Mr. Melkonyants was listed as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, who declared that the electoral expert was “persecuted only for his civil activism”.
