A court in Moscow arrested Golos co-chairman Grigory Melkonyants in the case of an “undesirable” organization

The Basmanny District Court arrested the co-chairman of the “Voice” movement, Grigory Melkonyants, in the case of organizing the work of an “undesirable” non-governmental organization (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by a Mediazona correspondent from the courtroom.

The day before, on August 17, searches were carried out on at least 15 people in several regions of Russia as part of this case. After the search, Melkonyants was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee, and from there to a meeting to select a preventive measure.

According to investigators, the Golos movement is a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations ( ENEMO ), which is recognized as an “undesirable” organization in Russia.

According to Melkonyants’ lawyer Mikhail Biryukov, the resolution to initiate the case mentions the speech of the chairman of “Golos” at the Central Election Commission in June 2022. It is his investigation that interprets it as the implementation of the activities of the “undesirable organization” ENEMO .

The investigator insisted on the arrest of Melkonyants, since “taking into account his international connections” he could hide or influence witnesses in the case. The prosecutor supported these arguments.

The Voice movement was founded in 2000 to independently monitor elections. In 2013, the organization was declared a “foreign agent”, and in 2016 it was liquidated at the request of the Ministry of Justice. The association continued its work in the format of a movement to protect the rights of voters without forming a legal entity. In August 2021, Golos was again declared a “foreign agent.”

After Melkonyants' arrest, Golos released a statement saying that authorities were seeking to prevent observation of the regional elections on September 10 and the presidential elections in the spring of 2024.