The Case Against Golos: What It’s About

The co-chairman of the Russian observer movement Golos has been in a detention center for more than a year. A criminal case has been opened against him, and the trial has begun. We believe that such actions by law enforcement agencies are a form of pressure on the entire community of people striving to ensure that elections in Russia are fair and free.

How It All Started

In 2000, the Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Golos (in Russian, the word means both 'voice' and 'vote') was formed. It brought together several Russian NGOs that decided to observe elections. The Golos Association became one of the most significant election observer groups and a founding member of ENEMO, the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations.

In 2013, the Russian authorities designated the Golos Association a 'foreign agent,' its activities were suspended, although it remained listed in the legal entities register for several more years.

However, the demand for cooperation among the growing community of observers in different regions grew and expanded. In 2013, active citizens from various regions of Russia, including Grigory Melkonyants, founded the Golos movement - without establishing a legal entity. This organization was entirely different, with new founders, a different structure, and different operating principles. The Movement had no staff and not even a bank account.

The Golos Association continued to exist as an independent legal entity until it was officially removed from the state registry of legal entities on March 4, 2020, for ceasing operations. A year later, in 2021, the Russian authorities declared ENEMO an 'undesirable organization'. However, the Golos movement had never joined ENEMO and couldn't have done so, as it did not have legal entity status.

What Grigory is Accused Of

The investigation claims that Grigory Melkonyants organized the activities of an undesirable organization in Russia—ENEMO, which they somehow consider the Golos movement to be a "structural subdivision." However, the Golos movement was not a founding member of this organization and publicly announced that it had ceased all interaction with ENEMO after it was declared undesirable in Russia.

Russian authorities claim that the "undesirable ENEMO" interfered in elections, for example, by spreading fake information and discrediting Russian elections. However, ENEMO has never observed elections in Russia.

What Golos Does

The Golos movement protects electoral rights: It prepares training materials for observers, election commission members, and candidates, provides them with legal support on election days, and analyzes election campaigns and their results.

Election organizers and law enforcement agencies are putting pressure on public oversight. The aim of the case against Golos and personally against Grigory Melkonyants is to intimidate the community of people defending their electoral rights and to hinder public election monitoring.