Reacting to the sentencing of Russian civil society activist and prisoner of conscience Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:

“The Russian authorities instigated this criminal case in order to silence one of the country’s most respected election observers. Grigory Melkonyants has committed no crime – his only ‘offence’ was defending the right to free and fair elections in Russia. This is nothing more than a brazen and politically motivated clampdown on peaceful activism.

“Grigory Melkonyants must be released unconditionally and his conviction quashed. The legislation that was used to target him must be repealed. The international community cannot remain silent – neither on this appalling verdict nor on the outrageous assault on civic space that is taking place in Russia.”

Background

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow also imposed a 9-year ban on Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election watchdog Golos, participating in any civic activity. He was charged with purportedly organizing the activities of an “undesirable organization” – a nebulous term arbitrarily used by the Russian authorities to ban any organization they regard as a threat and to criminalize any association with said organizations.

The charges stem from Grigory Melkonyants’s alleged links to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021. Melkonyants and Golos have consistently denied any institutional connection to ENEMO.

Grigory Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience, prosecuted and imprisoned solely for his peaceful activism.

Throughout its 25-year history, Golos and its activists have faced harassment and persecution by the authorities. In 2013, it became the first organization in Russia to be labelled a “foreign agent” and was dissolved in 2016. Following the “foreign agent” designation, a movement under the same name was founded, which also engaged in election monitoring. In 2021, the movement and 20 of its activists and coordinators were declared “foreign agents.”