CSF issued a statement in connection with searches of ‘Golos’ movement leaders

The members of organizing committee and experts of the All-Russian Civil Society Forum (CSF) issued a statement in connection with the searches of the leaders of ‘Golos’ movement that were cunducted on June 7. Among those who signed the statement were Alexander Kinev, Maria Gaidar, Irina Prokhorova, Leonid Gozman, Yevgeniy Gontmaher and other prominent activists.

Statement issued by the members of organizing committee and experts of the All-Russian Civil Society Forum in connection with searches of ‘Golos’ movement leaders

Today, on 7 July 2015, at 6:45 a.m. the officers of Investigative Committee and NTV journalists arrived to the apartment of co-chairman of the movement ‘Golos’ Gregory Melkonyants in Khimki. Without introducing themselves, they broke through the door and searched the apartment, seized documents, computers and telephones. The lawyer of Melkonyants Olga Gnezdilova was denied access to the premises that were searched. Moreover, the apartments of ‘Golos’ activists Valentina Denisenko, Tatyana Troynova and Roman Udot were as well searched. At the time of issuance of this statement the organization office was searched.

According to the current updates, the searches are justified with the investigation of tax case brought against ‘Golos’ partner organization. The exercise of these legal proceedings in such particular cases is excessive and redundant.

The movement ‘Golos’ is the largest network uniting citizens engaged in civic election observation. On the eve of searches, ‘Golos’ has launched an interactive map of electoral fraud and has started receiving information from citizens in this regard. ‘Golos’ experts are working on the development of electoral reform in the framework of the All-Russian Civil Society Forum.

The conducted searches can be perceived as a direct pressure on the ‘Golos’ movement in anticipation of the upcoming Municipal and Regional Elections that should be held in September. It is obvious that this will inevitably hamper the civic ovservation of upcoming election campaigns.

We also do not rule out a possibility that the ultimate goal of such actions is a full termination of observers’ activities, a year before the next Parliamentary Elections.

We believe the incident sets an extremely dangerous precedent and we demand to stop the persecution of civil movement observers.

We believe that it is not enough to express our solidarity with the observers. It is also important to provide them our actual support, disseminate impartial information on elections and to become observers ourselves. Only our joint actions can change something.

Vyacheslav Bakhmin

Ivan Begtin

Maria Gaidar

Leonid Gozman

Anatoly Golubovskii

Yevgeny Gontmaher

Yekaterina Gorshenina

Anatoly Ermolin

Vadim Karastelev

Alexander Kinev

Sergei Lukashevsky

Svetlana Makovetska

Andrei Maximov

Vlada Muraveva

Vadim Novikov

Vitaly Novoselov

Boris Obolenets

Andrei Petrov

Irina Prokhorova

Varvara Razumovskaya

Alexander Rubtsov

Marina Skorikova

Nikita Sokolov

Irina Starodubrovskaya

Nina Tagankina

Elena Tikhonova

Pavel Tulin

Sergei Tsyplyaev

Maria Chertok

Igor Chestin

Tatiana Chestin

Elena Shatalova

Maria Shklyaruk

Petr Shkumatov

Vladimir Yakimets

Irina Yasina