One of the heads of an independent Russian non-governmental organization, specializing as an observatory electionswas today remanded in custody by a Russian court, accused of being involved in your activityof “undesirable organization”, with the MCO arguing that Russian authorities are trying to prevent it from controlling the upcoming regional and presidential elections.
Grigory Melkonians, the co-president of the NGO Golos (Voice) for the defense of voters’ rights, was arrested yesterday, while the police raided dozens of homes of members of the organization.
Russian justice accuses Melkonians of ties to the European Network of Election Observation Organizations, which the Russian authorities have declared an “undesirable” organization.
The Basmani court in Moscow remanded him in custody until at least October 17, pending his trial. His lawyer reported that his client he faces up to six years in prison.
He was speechless at the announcement of his pre-trial detention
In a video released by the court, Melkoniands appears expressionless when his pre-trial detention is announced. He is then led out of the courtroom and appears to be handcuffed.
The decision comes just weeks before regional elections in September and less than a year before Russia’s 2024 presidential election.
Police yesterday raided the homes of dozens of Golos members in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Chelyabinsk, according to OVD-info, which specializes in tracking arrests in Russia. During the raids, the police seized cash, bank cards, passports and other documents, Golos said. He added that one member was taken to hospital after being hit on the head and stepped on the back, while another was detained for 15 days for disobeying the police.
The organization blames the Russian authorities
The organization accused the Russian authorities of attempting to prevent the control of the upcoming regional and presidential elections by arresting Melkonyants and raiding the homes of its members.
The NGO linked the police raids to regional elections on September 10 and the upcoming election campaign for the March 2024 presidential election, which Vladimir Putin is expected to contest and win another six-year term in the Kremlin.
“We are convinced that the real the purpose of this attack is to interfere with public surveillance” of both consecutive elections, said Stanislav Andreychuk, also president of Golos.
Andreychuk said the authorities seem to “doubt that they have real support, that the desired results of the upcoming presidential and regional elections are achievable” if independent election monitoring is allowed.
The New York Times quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier this month as saying, according to the report, that “our presidential elections are not really democracy, but costly bureaucracy” and that Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90% of the vote.
Peskov later told Russia’s TASS news agency that his words were interpreted as “completely wrong way,” stressing that Putin enjoys unprecedented support and will receive an overwhelming majority of the vote if he runs for president again, something he has yet to confirm.
Golos had angered the Russian government by releasing evidence of alleged fraud in the 2011 parliamentary election that sparked opposition protests and then in the presidential election that returned Putin to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.
Dozens of organizations in Russia have been declared “undesirable” by the courts, which exposes organizations that work with them to legal action. Golos was included in 2021 in the list of “foreign agents”, a designation that subjects organizations included in this list to excruciating administrative procedures and puts them under the threat of fines.
Thousands of citizens in Russia are being prosecuted, mainly because of their opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and some have been given heavy sentences.
As part of the pogrom that the Russian authorities have unleashed against any critical voice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Moscow municipal court today ordered the dissolution of the Zakharov Center, one of the last remaining human rights institutions in the country. Russia.
Source: News Beast
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