In August 2023, authorities in eight Russian regions carried out a new wave of searches targeting members of “Golos,” a nationwide civic movement for the defense of voters’ rights. One of the movement’s co-chairs, Grigory Melkonyants, was detained and charged in connection with alleged cooperation with a so-called “undesirable organization.” After more than a year and a half of legal proceedings, he was sentenced on May 14, 2025, to five years in a penal colony.

The charges stemmed from alleged collaboration with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was designated as “undesirable” by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in 2021.

Let’s examine this case from three perspectives: Pro, Contra, In fact. But first, a brief preface.

The persecution of Golos began long ago. Founded in 2003 as the “Association of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Defense of Voters’ Rights ‘Golos,’” the movement focused on identifying and reporting electoral violations. It did this so effectively that in 2013, shortly after the passage of Russia’s “foreign agent” law (which at the time applied only to NGOs), Golos was officially labeled a “foreign agent.”

In response, the organization dissolved its legal entity and continued its work as a civic movement, without legal registration.

Over time, the “foreign agent” legislation was significantly tightened. The Ministry of Justice created a registry of unregistered public associations performing the functions of a “foreign agent.” Golos became the very first entry in this new list. That same year, 20 people affiliated with Golos were designated as “foreign agent” media.

In August 2023, SOTAvision published a detailed timeline of the increasing pressure on Golos and its members. One key episode occurred in 2022, when authorities searched the homes of several board members and regional coordinators, including Melkonyants, in connection with a case against Ivanovo-based activist Mikhail Gusev. Gusev was charged with “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.” In the court’s decision, Golos was described as an “undesirable” organization in Russia — despite never being formally listed as such. This may have laid the foundation for the 2025 verdict against Melkonyants.

Contra

The August 2023 searches targeting Golos staff were reportedly linked to ENEMO, which had been declared an “undesirable organization” in Russia in 2021. Under Russian law, this designation not only bans an organization’s activity but also criminalizes cooperation with it — including by individuals or other entities.

Grigory Melkonyants was detained after a search on August 17, 2023. During the search itself, it was revealed that a criminal case had been initiated against him for organizing the activities of an “undesirable” foreign NGO. At a September 15 hearing, defense attorney Mikhail Biryukov pointed out that the prosecution’s case included 250 pages allegedly analyzing the Golos website, though in reality they were just screenshots from ENEMO’s site. This and a public statement from Golos denying any cooperation with ENEMO were ignored by the court. Melkonyants remained in pretrial detention and did not regain his freedom before the verdict.

“It seems the aim is to silence Golos as quickly as possible, which is why everything is moving so fast… This case is clearly intended to intimidate independent election observers so they either stay away or stay quiet — following the rule: ‘Speak well of elections or say nothing.’ That’s the country we live in,” Melkonyants said in a statement from jail, published by SOTAvision.

Pro

After ENEMO’s designation in 2021, Golos publicly stated that it had ceased all cooperation with the group:

“On September 27, the Prosecutor General’s Office declared ENEMO an undesirable organization. ENEMO had never monitored or assessed elections in Russia. Nonetheless, it was deemed a threat to Russia’s constitutional order and national security. Golos was forced to formally withdraw from ENEMO.”

Despite this, investigators described Golos not just as a participant, but as a structural subdivision of ENEMO. Melkonyants was accused of organizing the group’s activities in Russia. The court saw the continued work of Golos after ENEMO’s designation as evidence of direct involvement in the banned organization.

One example cited in the indictment was Melkonyants’ participation in a roundtable organized by Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) on September 11, 2022, regarding electronic voting. Prosecutors argued that his failure to request the dissolution of Golos showed he had “fully realized his criminal intent,” according to SOTAvision‘s courtroom reporting.

Defense lawyers sought to summon CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova as a witness, but she did not appear in court.

In Fact

In 2000, the Golos Association was one of the founding members of ENEMO. After being declared a foreign agent in 2013, the association’s activity effectively ceased. The current civic movement known as Golos emerged from regional activists—including Melkonyants—who continued election monitoring without forming a legal entity.

This new Golos had a different structure, different founders, and operated under different principles. It had no formal staff and no bank accounts. The original Golos Association remained a separate legal entity until it was officially dissolved on March 4, 2020, due to inactivity. ENEMO was labeled “undesirable” only in 2021. As members of the civic movement explain on their website, the new Golos was never a member of ENEMO — nor could it have been, lacking legal personhood.

Prosecutor Yekaterina Frolova requested a six-year sentence — the maximum for the charge. The Basmanny District Court sentenced Melkonyants to five years in a general regime colony. Given time served in pretrial detention, he will spend a little over two more years in prison. He has not admitted guilt.

“As a lawyer, I do not understand why I’m here and why I stand accused in this case. Most importantly, I do not understand why I must prove my innocence, rather than the prosecution proving my guilt — as guaranteed by Article 49 of the Russian Constitution. This case lacks any criminal act. And yet I am forced to prove a negative: that Golos is not a subdivision of ENEMO, that I did not organize ENEMO activity by speaking at a CEC roundtable… The entire case is built on baseless and inaccurate claims by law enforcement and the manipulation of documents,” Melkonyants said in his final statement to the court.

As mentioned at the beginning, Russian authorities have strong incentives to suppress independent election monitoring. It is no secret that Golos and the CEC often report drastically different statistics on electoral violations.

Take the 2021 State Duma elections, for example:
 Golos recorded 5,456 reports of alleged violations. These included mass ballot-stuffing incidents—some confirmed through video analysis.

“We tried different methods to assess the scale of ballot stuffing last year. The statistical models we trust, which align with our own observations, estimate around 12 million ‘excess’ votes—and that only covers one type of fraud,” said Golos co-chair Stanislav Andreichuk.

Observers documented violations in six regions: Barnaul, Krasnodar Krai, and the Ryazan, Tyumen, Tver, and Saratov regions. “Carousel voting”—organized repeat voting—was reported in Barnaul and the Moscow, Samara, and Saratov regions. In Saratov, police even stopped two buses carrying individuals to polling stations.

Other violations included blocking access for observers, bans on filming, and anomalous results in regions using online voting. In Moscow and elsewhere, support for the ruling United Russia party spiked dramatically after digital votes were tallied. There were also reports of public-sector employees being forced to vote—an indication of administrative pressure.

In contrast, the CEC confirmed only 12 cases of ballot-stuffing—in Adygea, Kalmykia, North Ossetia, and the Bryansk, Ivanovo, Kemerovo, Moscow, and Saratov regions. Just 25,830 ballots were annulled. Results were voided at only three polling stations—in Crimea, Kalmykia, and St. Petersburg.

Of the thousands of reported violations, the CEC acknowledged only 9% as valid. The rest were dismissed as inaccurate or unrelated to electoral law. CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova described 70% of the complaints as “lies” and “garbage.”

“There will be consequences,” Pamfilova said, as quoted by TASS. “We won’t stand by while this nonsense circulates — someone starts a fake, another spreads it, someone fries it, someone marinates it, and it just keeps flying from one outlet to another, turning into a whole flock of fake news.”

As we now know, the consequences came swiftly — in the form of the prosecution of Golos members, and Grigory Melkonyants in particular.

P.S. In November 2024, months before the verdict, Amnesty International declared Grigory Melkonyants a prisoner of conscience. On May 19, 2025, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office labeled Amnesty International itself as an “undesirable organization.”