A report was drawn up against a member of the federal bureau of the Yabloko party, Alexander Efimov, under the article on cooperation with an “undesirable organization” (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because of an interview he gave to participants in the “Voice” movement of election observers. This was reported by the press service of Yabloko.
Efimov gave an interview about the party’s position on the presidential election on December 20, and on February 20 the man was summoned to the prosecutor’s office of the city of Volzhsky, Volgograd region, to draw up a protocol.
Russian law enforcement officials believe that Golos is part of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was designated as “undesirable” in the fall of 2021. Golos suspended its membership of ENEMO the very next day, but members of the movement are regularly harassed for their alleged links to the network. Co-chairman of “Golos” Grigory Melkonyants has been in a pre-trial detention center since August on a criminal case for organizing the activities of an “undesirable organization” (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code).
“We are used to the security forces making up cases against us, but before the plot of the accusation at least conditionally claimed to be plausible. Today anyone can be accused of anything. Participation in the Kennedy assassination? Yes Easy. The highest level of absurdity is welcomed by superiors. “We can do whatever we want to you.” The goal is to intimidate, force out of the country or silence political opponents,” Alexander Efimov commented on his persecution.
- In March 2023, Efimov was fined 30 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 203.3 of the Administrative Code) due to the publication of a UN report on civilian casualties in Ukraine. In the fall of the same year, the politician’s page on VKontakte was blocked at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Efimov is the author of a petition against the renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad; it was signed by 9.2 thousand people.
- For participation in the activities of an “undesirable organization,” administrative liability is provided (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, maximum penalty - a fine of up to 15 thousand rubles for citizens), and with repeated participation, criminal liability (Part 1 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code, maximum penalty - imprisonment for up to four years). Article 284.1 also applies to financing or organizing the activities of an “undesirable organization”, in which case the punishment can be up to five and up to six years in prison, respectively.