Moscow: On Thursday night, Russian authorities detained Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chair of the prominent independent vote-monitoring group Golos (Voice), according to an announcement on the organization's website.
The incident began with law enforcement officers arriving at Melkonyants' apartment in the early morning hours. After conducting a search of his residence, they transported him to the main department of the Russian Investigative Committee to face charges.
A court hearing has been scheduled for Friday to determine whether Melkonyants will be kept in custody, as reported by Golos, citing his lawyer Mikhail Biryukov.
Melkonyants potentially faces a prison sentence of up to six years for his involvement with an international organization that Russian authorities have deemed "undesirable," stated his lawyer in interviews with Russian agencies.
A video released by the RIA news agency showcased three unidentified individuals in plain clothing alongside Melkonyants within his home. In the video, one of the individuals instructed Melkonyants to note the time, 6.45 a.m. (0345 GMT), on a paper he was signing.
Based in Moscow, Golos actively monitors election campaigns in various Russian regions leading up to the scheduled voting in September.
The group initially drew the government's ire by revealing evidence of alleged fraud during the 2011 parliamentary vote, which subsequently triggered opposition protests. Additionally, Golos exposed irregularities in the presidential election that secured Vladimir Putin's third term in the Kremlin in 2012.
Despite being labeled a foreign agent by the Russian government, Golos persisted in its operations within the country, even as Russia intensified its crackdown on dissent following its invasion of Ukraine the previous year.
The potential prosecution of Melkonyants is believed to be linked to Golos' association with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), a non-governmental organization based in Montenegro.
Golos has communicated on its website that it terminated its collaboration with ENEMO after Russian authorities prohibited the network's activities in 2021.
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In a coordinated effort, Russian law enforcement conducted searches at the residences of 14 Golos members across eight regions in Russia, as reported by RIA