The last echo of freedom

With the defeat of the Voice movement in Russia, in fact, there was not a single independent civilian institute. Chronicle of the destruction of elections

In the late autumn of 2011, on the eve of the parliamentary and presidential elections, at which Putin planned to be elected for a third term (and successfully chose, despite the wrappers and protests of citizens in Bolotnaya), the Voillery Association Office (which was engaged in the identification of wrappers and violations) broke the NTV filming group. The camera worked without a break, they did not ask the Voosa employees to shoot, only correspondent Mikhail Ivanov with a contempt in his voice, playing the role of a journalist-investigator, loudly imposed how many associations paying the CIA and why they “break the electoral process”. NTV was preparing the next “megaragulator” film about the opposition, this time specifically about observers, called “Voice out of nowhere”. Employees of Voosa refused to talk with NTV, and the then Deputy Executive Director of Voice, 30-year-old Grigory Melkonian, in response to take off the NTV correspondent on his smartphone and repeated the phrase “NTV-Surkovskaya Propaganda” to any question. Gregory said these words for seven minutes 87 times (!). The face of a correspondent, who did not allow Melkonian to open his mouth, changed at a phenomenal speed and by the end became as confused as those to whom riot police and NTV come to searches. The phrase Melkonian became a meme and brought wide fame of both the Voice association itself and its modest author. Far from publicity, Melkonians became the hero of the Runet, and the video recorded by him, where the main ideologist of the Kremlin Vladislav Surkov was mentioned, scored over 600 thousand views.

“I just understood,” said the Novaya Gazeta Melkonians then,

-If I start answering them normally, explain something, then they will cut the answers they need and make the inserts, because this is NTV. They will introduce us to the enemies of the Russian people,

Puppers of the "Washington regional committee". Moreover, as we understood, there is a specific order on the “voice” from above - to discredit us and our activists now, right before the elections. ”

After 12 years, before the elections of 2024, in which Vladimir Vladimirovich, it seems, plans to be elected for the fifth time, the “vote” in different regions of Russia came home to Melkonian and employees: riot police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and film crews, starting from NTV and ending Izvestia and RIA News. This time they shot not a black order in the form of another film, but conducted mass searches in the framework of a criminal case on a fashionable article on the organization of the activities of an “unwanted” organization (part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code, the term of imprisonment is from two to six years), which is presented to all objectionable media and organizations.

The NTV and other state media will show a video of the Melkonian’s apartment in the apartment and how the co -chair of the “Voice” is taken out of the house and put them in a minibus. Melkonian was taken to the UK, where they were interrogated as a suspect. In the evening, they no longer released home, placing a temporary detention center at night. And the next day, the Basmanny Court entered into a pre -trial detention center.

Until yesterday, the Voice remained in Russia, in fact, the only non -warmed civil institute. However, as in the case of other human rights and educational organizations, his fate was predetermined after February 2022.

The New Gazeta Europe tells about the success of the Voice movement in Russia and represents a portrait of its permanent person, the best specialist in the country for organizing the election of Grigory Melkonian.

“Voice” has existed exactly as much as Putin in power - since 2000. Initially, this was the Association of non -profit organizations in defense of voter rights. All these 23 years, “Voice” has been engaged in independent long-term and short-term monitoring of any elections in Russia, teaches volunteer volunteers, supports the work of the federal hotline and online services, and provides legal assistance to voters. In 2000, when there were no special services, applications, and the site, the “voice” began with small (at the present time, however, this seems extremely audacity)-with monitoring the formation of regional budgets. This first project “Voice” was called “Transparent Budget”, within the framework of it, deputies even developed and amended the Budget Code on the formation of regional and local budgets. Then there was a monitoring of the work of current deputies. The authorities, which had not yet filled his hand on gross falsifications and stuffing in the elections, looked at the “voice” with surprise and genuine interest. In 2003, representatives of the Voice first took part in observing the elections to the State Duma of the IV convocation. They then performed a parallel counting of votes in 20 regions. More than 4.5 thousand independent observers were able to send to polling stations. The development and introduction of a system of parallel vote counting was engaged in the “voice” that had just been released from the law faculty of the Astrakhan State Technical University, 22-year-old Grigory Melkonants. Despite his young age, in the “voice” he was already then deputy executive director of Lilia Shibanova.

The Armenian by his father, he somehow immediately remembered everyone-with large sad expressive eyes with a scattering of thick eyelashes, a semi-smile and a desire for invisibility. It was always difficult for journalists to persuade him for an interview. Melkonants did not engage in discussions about politics, but was always deeply immersed in the process, buried in his laptop, where in the non-stop mode, ideas about observing, calculating, monitoring and organizing work in the elections were invented. In an interview with journalists, when this nevertheless happened, this young man was academic as a professor in his subject: “Elections are not only voting day, elections are a whole process. And to evaluate the elections for how honest and free they are in the complex. ”

And he investigated and created this complex with his colleagues for two decades.

So,

In the presidential election in Russia in 2004, Voice launched a free federal hotline. It was a know-how. After another year, the Association expanded the election monitoring in Russia through the observation of regional election campaigns.

“Voice” was noticed abroad. By 2006, the Association became part of the European network of election surveillance (ENEMO), and also began to cooperate with the Bureau of Democratic Institutes and Human Rights under the OSCE. The list of recommendations for the use of electronic voting electronic voting tools included proposals and developments of a melkonian and colleagues developed and adopted. It was also impossible not to notice the “voice” inside the country. The CEC was then headed by Alexander Vishnyakov. He did not go into an open confrontation with the “voice”, he didn’t get into the wheels of special sticks, but it was under Vishnyakov that the “Voice” lost the opportunity to direct observers from public organizations to sections of public organizations, it was allowed only from parties.

But we must pay tribute: at that time it never occurred to anyone to close the association. Yes, and the laws with which this could be done, then did not exist yet.

The Association established the medal "Defender of Free Elections", Melkonian became a member of the award committee.

During public observation in the federal elections of 2007-2008, “Voice” was still able to prepare more than 3 thousand independent observers. Based on the results of monitoring, the association initiated a public hearing entitled “The obvious and incredible in the federal elections 2007-2008: Facts and evidence” with the participation of representatives of the Communist Party, “Fair Russia”, “Yabloko”, “For Human Rights” and Independent Experts. Hearing, surprisingly today, took place. No one dispersed them. The Association calmly held the All-Russian Forum of Public Observers, arranged all kinds of exhibitions from the "Law on Elections in Pictures for Adults and Children" to "Voters against Violations of Elections", as well as the information and educational campaigns "Voice!" - In contrast to the slogan of the historical election campaign of the 1996 Yeltsin, “Vote!”

The first collision. "Voice" and Churovsky CEC

In 2007, in the chair of the head of the CEC will be a colleague of Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg City Hall Vladimir Churov. “Voice” will gradually begin to recall international cooperation and grants from the EU.

“This is completely open information,” said Melkonian in an interview. - We do not hide that we receive grants from foreign funds, structures of the European Union: their representative offices are completely legally working in Russia. And financing is transparent, like partitions in our office.

But before the 2011 parliamentary elections, “Voice” will begin to spread openly openly. At first, with the help of the main Kremlin printed house at that time, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta (she told the unconscious population that the Voice Association was not engaged in any protection of voters' rights, but "is trying to earn on the process of observing the elections."

In the fall of 2011, on the eve of the elections, the Voice has just started the project “Map of Violations”. The meaning was that the citizens themselves monitored the violations in the elections, reporting them through the form on the Voice website, by phone or through SMS, if desired and there is a photo and video. On the basis of messages, an interactive map of Russia was formed, displaying the number of messages about election violations in the regions.

As a result, in the Duma elections of 2011, Voice recorded more than 7 thousand messages, which partly played a role in the further protests of the winter of 2011-2012.

Subsequently, the project “Map of Violations” was included in the short list of “Runet Prize” -2011 in the nomination “State and Society”.

Another crowdsourcing project “Voice”-SMS CIK-allowed instantly collecting data from the final protocols received by observers, compare with what was entered into the SHAS “Elections” system, and track the rewriting of the protocols. And finally, the Voice invented a mobile application for observers containing the latest version of the electoral legislation, complaint templates, as well as allowing to send a violation message. The application works in offline mode.

The Churovsky CEC was very annoyed. Churov himself personally accused the “voice” “of illegal agitation against the party in power -“ United Russia ”.” This was stated in a letter, which the head of the CEC sent to the Meshchansky prosecutor's office. The text of the document was announced at the court session on the administrative case of Voting in court. The main claims of the prosecutor's office concerned precisely the project “Map of Violations”. In a letter, Churov pointed out that "in distributed information, negative reports of one of the parties -" United Russia "clearly prevail, which could contribute to the creation of its negative image among voters." In addition, the head of the CEC noted that the Voice receives grants from abroad, and this is a violation of Russian electoral legislation. The case against the “vote” was then instituted at the request of three deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the parties “United Russia”, the LDPR and “Fair Russia”.

As a result, the bourgeois court fined the “Voice” for a “card of violations” for 30 thousand rubles.

However, the collision only gained strength. In 2012, the Voice was forced to stop receiving financial assistance from the US Federal Government Agency, which has ceased its work in Russia from October 1, 2012.

Well, a year later, when the authorities initiate the “Law on Foreign Agents”, the “Voice” will be one of the first to be recognized as such - “for obtaining foreign financing”, which by that time was no longer,

and "participation in political activity." “Foreign financing” was recognized as a prize from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee “For Propaganda of Democratic Values”, which the association abandoned, so as not to obtain the status of a “foreign agent”, and political activities were considered to develop amendments to the constituency. For refusing to register as a “foreign agent”, the Presnensky district court of Moscow fined the Association for 300 thousand rubles, and its executive director Lilia Shibanova - for 100 thousand rubles. In 2016, at the request of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the Voice was liquidated. Associations charged political activity in the form of observation of elections and participation in the election campaign by disseminating information aimed at transforming public opinion. The Commission on Electoral Rights of the Presidential Council of Human Rights (the Council was then headed by Liberal Mikhail Fedotov) questioned the court decision. However, the Moscow City Court recognized the liquidation of legal.

So there was no association "Voice". Employees continued to work in motion in defense of voters' rights “Voice”, but without forming a legal entity and not opening bank accounts. The Voice began to exist on donations and the help of the Russian Voter League Foundation. One of the co -chairs of the movement was Grigory Melkonians.

Melkonian and Pamfilovsky CEC

In 2014, the Voice project - the All -Russian Base of Election Commissions of the Vikiyiks - won the National Prize “Civil Initiative” in the “Air Freedom” nomination - human rights initiatives, the fight against corruption, infringement of civilian freedoms. Melkonian - by that time the face of the “voice” - received a prize from the hands of Vladimir Pozner himself.

In 2016, the CEC was headed by Ella Pamfilova, a former head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights. In the first years, she treated the “voice” and his initiatives with understanding - either the previous habit of trusting more independent projects remained than pro -government, or her complacency was indicative. One way or another, Pamfilova welcomed the work of the Voice, not hanging the stigma of “CIA agents” on the movement. She immediately made Grigory Melkonian a member of the expert group of public observers under the CEC of Russia. He was also included in the public headquarters on the observation of the elections under the Public Chamber of Moscow. Then he was invited to a member of the permanent advisory and legal group under the Expert Council under the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation.

The first years of Pamfilova, to the “Voice”, listened and for especially gross violations during the elections reported members of the election commissions, however, without solving the problem of the transparency of the elections as a whole. Twice-after the 2016 elections and after the 2018 election-Pamfilova declared official gratitude to the Melkonian by her decree: "For active assistance and significant assistance in organizing and conducting election campaigns in the Russian Federation."

He participated in round tables of the CEC and continued to monitor the violation with his colleagues and report them.

In 2017, the movement was awarded the OSCE award for the exceptional contribution to the promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights.

But at the same time, irritation in relation to the “voice” began to grow again. On the eve of the presidential elections in 2018, “like a human rights activist” from the Kremlin, Alexander Brod, turned on the old song-decided, as once Churov, NTV and the Ministry of Justice, to recall the “voice” of allegedly in “political activity” and “foreign phining”.

- “ Voice has many different legal entities - there is an association, a fund, and movement. There are many ways to hide foreign financing, but I believe that human rights activity should be as transparent as possible, otherwise it turns into political activity . The “Voice” conducts its activities in order to escalate the situation during the election campaign, to create the feeling that a huge number of violations have already been recorded, and the elections are illegitimate , ” complained for the ford to journalists.

Nevertheless, in March 2018, Vladimir Putin successfully elected for the fourth term. No “voice” prevented.

Council of the second

In August 2021, literally on the eve of the autumn elections to the State Duma, the authorities brought the Voice movement to the new register - this time "unregistered public associations that perform the functions of a foreign agent." Earlier, the Ministry of Justice conducted two register of “foreign agents”: registered NGOs and the media (the latter includes not only organizations, but also individual people). However, at the end of June 2021, President Putin, by his decree , endowed the Ministry of Justice with the right to conduct two more lists of “foreign agents”. Now the department is authorized to maintain an register of unregistered public associations and a list of individuals that it was decided to reckon to “foreign agents”. The Voice became the first organization entered into it. The “citizen of the Republic of Armenia” was indicated as a source of foreign financing in the register. Moreover, her name or any other information was not given.

“Brad,” the Melkonets then commented on the situation on his Facebook. - This is a serious signal about preparing falsifications. Мы планируем продолжить работу по защите избирательных прав. Призываем всех голосовать и наблюдать.

Что же касается Эллы Памфиловой, то она была уже другой главой ЦИК, и от ее желания прислушиваться и сотрудничать с наблюдателями не осталось и следа.

Сам Мельконьянц, по его признанию, был поражен масштабом фальсификаций именно этих, предвоенных выборов 2021 года:

— Такого никогда не было, если смотреть формально, то даже при Советском Союзе не было такого количества поражения в пассивном избирательном праве, — говорил он журналистам. — У нас порядка 9 млн российских граждан поражены в праве избираться на выборах. Это огромное число, в него входит очень много реальных политиков, активных граждан, которые из-за этих законов просто не могут участвовать в выборах. <…> Наконец, проблема с самими наблюдателями.

Независимых наблюдателей мало, а вместо них власть пытается предъявить нам наблюдателей от «Единой России», от Общественной палаты.

Это такая серьезная история, связанная с тем, что государство хочет фактически монополизировать общественное наблюдение за выборами. То есть государство создало общественные палаты, они формируются на федеральном уровне, на региональных уровнях фактически государственными органами, у них бюджетное финансирование, и они сейчас имитируют общественное наблюдение. По административным каналам формируются списки наблюдателей, в основном это бюджетники, которые подменяют собой независимое наблюдение от гражданских организаций, структур гражданского общества. Выделяются огромные средства для создания общественных штабов, выделяются помещения, на них работают государственные СМИ… И их основная задача — говорить, что нарушений нет, бороться с реальными наблюдателями и заявлять, что всё, что они говорят, — это фейки, неправда, что общественные наблюдатели нарушений не фиксировали, а если и фиксировали, то это что-то незначительное. А все остальные нарушения — это как бы неправда. И вот в таком режиме Центральная избирательная комиссия как бы вошла в эту государственную вертикаль. То есть у нас есть ЦИК, который говорит , что нет нарушений.

Наезд третий. Debe

За год до вторжения России в Украину «Голос» продолжал работать — как и все остальные коллеги по несчастью: иноагенты «Мемориал», «Сова», Сахаровский центр и другие, пока в 2022–2023 годах все не попали под каток государственной машины и не были ликвидированы окончательно. Мельконьянц до войны успел стать лауреатом премии Московской Хельсинской группы (ее тоже ликвидируют после начала войны) в области защиты прав человека. В 2020 году его наградили юбилейной медалью «Московская городская дума. 25 лет» — за выдающийся вклад в законотворческую деятельность…

Когда началась война, Роскомнадзор заблокировал сайт движения за «размещение недостоверной общественно значимой информации» о вторжении России на территорию Украины.

Мельконьянц из страны никуда не уезжал. Удивительно, но даже в военный 2022 год его приглашали выступать в ЦИК на круглых столах. И сегодня Следственный комитет среди прочего ставит ему в претензию

(в рамках дела о нежелательной организации) то, что, находясь в здании ЦИК в июне 2022 года, он от имени движения озвучил предложения по применению дистанционного электронного голосования на выборах, которые состоялись 11 сентября прошлого года, «чем также нарушил российское законодательство».

Осенью 2022-го в нескольких регионах России прошли обыски — у аналитика по выборам Сергея Шпилькина и сотрудников «Голоса» — по уголовному делу о дискредитации российских военных. Утром 5 октября силовики ворвались с обыском в московскую квартиру аналитика по выборам Сергея Шпилькина (с 2007 года публикует анализы результатов выборов). He himself now lives outside of Russia, his wife Olga Artamonova was in his home. Пришли с обыском тогда и к Мельконьянцу. Изъяв у него всю телефонную и компьютерную технику, а также банковские карты, флешки и загранпаспорт, задерживать не стали.

А 17 августа 2023 года к Мельконьянцу пришли с обыском снова. Теперь как к главному подозреваемому по уголовному делу. Investigative actions are related to the activities of the European network of election monitoring organizations (ENEMO). Генпрокуратура РФ признала ENEMO «нежелательной» в сентябре 2021 года. И хотя «Голос» после этого приостановил свое членство в этой организации, повод разгромить движение всё равно изобрели.

…Когда одного из лучших специалистов в России по организации выборов и мониторингу нарушений на них выводили из его собственной квартиры оперативники в масках, на лице Мельконьянца была та самая фирменная полуулыбка.

На следующий день Басманный суд арестовал его по просьбе следствия на первые два месяца — до 17 октября.