Head of Russia's only independent election watchdog receives 5-year prison sentence
The head of Russia's only independent election watchdog was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in a penal colony after being found guilty of working with an "undesirable organization."
Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Golos movement, was arrested in August 2023. He pleaded not guilty at his trial.
Human rights campaigners say the case against the 44-year-old is part of a wider crackdown on civil society that has intensified since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
News outlet Mediazona said Melkonyants called out to supporters in the courtroom and urged them not to be downhearted over the verdict.
Golos, which means both "voice" and "vote" in Russian, first angered the authorities by publicizing evidence of what it said was fraud in a 2011 parliamentary election that led to opposition protests, and then in the presidential vote that returned Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.
The charges against Melkonyants were based on his alleged involvement with the Montenegro-based European Network of Election Monitoring Organisations, which links watchdogs in former communist countries in Europe and Central Asia. ENEMO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Golos says it has had no interaction with ENEMO since Russia banned the latter as "undesirable" in 2021.
"This absurd case [against Melkonyants] defies easy explanation, not only for foreigners but even for ourselves," Golos co-chair Stanislav Andreichuk told Reuters.
Despite being designated as a "foreign agent," Golos continues its work in Russia.
"Even though things are getting tougher, we're still doing what we do," Andreichuk said.
Last year, Golos described the 2024 election that returned Putin for a fifth term with more than 88 per cent of the vote as the most fraudulent and corrupt in the country's history.
The Kremlin said the result showed that the Russian people had "consolidated" around Putin, and Western attempts to portray the election as illegitimate were absurd.
Andreichuk said the Melkonyants trial should matter to the outside world, because Golos's work was part of a struggle for democracy.
"A real democracy in Russia wouldn't be a military threat. But an authoritarian government will keep threatening its neighbours," he said.
Rights group OVD-Info says more than 1,600 people are currently imprisoned in Russia on political grounds. The Kremlin says it does not comment on individual cases, but that Russia needs to uphold its laws and protect itself against subversive activity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
EU seeks to lower a price cap on Russian oil and discourage Nord Stream pipeline investors
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas address the media at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) BRUSSELS — The European Union wants to lower a cap on the price of Russian oil to deprive the Kremlin of extra profits to fund its war in Ukraine as part of a new raft of sanctions aimed at forcing Moscow to the negotiating table, senior officials said on Tuesday. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc is 'proposing to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45, which is lower than the market price, and lowering the oil price cap will hit Russia's revenues hard.' Kallas said the EU also wants to impose 'sanctions on the Nord Stream pipelines to prevent Russia generating any revenue in the future. In this way, it sends a clear signal we are not going back to business as usual.' All 27 EU member countries must all agree for the sanctions to enter force. In 2023, Ukraine's Western allies limited sales of Russian oil to $60 per barrel but the price cap was largely symbolic as most of Moscow's crude — its main moneymaker — cost less than that. Still, the cap was there in case oil prices rose. Oil income is the linchpin of Russia's economy, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces while avoiding worsening inflation for everyday people and a currency collapse. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she assumed that the price cap would be discussed and agreed among the leaders of the Group of Seven major world economic powers when they meet in Canada on June 15-17. She said the United States and its G7 partners realize 'that the oil price has lowered so much that the effectiveness of the cap is to be questioned, and therefore we all want to lower the oil price from $60 per barrel down to $45 per barrel.' The Nord Stream gas pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation. They were sabotaged in 2022, but the source of the underwater explosions has remained a major international mystery. The Commission has said that it wants to impose sanctions on the operating consortium to discourage investors from trying to use the pipelines in future. The blasts happened as Europe attempted to wean itself off Russian energy sources following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and contributed to tensions that followed the start of the war. Von der Leyen noted on Tuesday that at the beginning of the war in 2022, 'Russia had 12 billion euros ($14 billion) of energy revenues from fossil fuels' from Europe per month. 'And now we're down to 1.8 billion (euros).' The new EU sanctions would also target Russia's banking sector, with the aim of limiting the Kremlin's ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. A further 22 Russian banks will be hit with measures, von der Leyen said. An export ban worth some 2.5 billion euros would also be imposed, and the assets frozen of more than 20 Russian and foreign companies alleged to be providing support to the Kremlin's war machine. Von der Leyen said the sanctions are aimed at forcing Russia into serious talks about peace with Ukraine. 'We need a real ceasefire, and Russia has to come to the negotiating table with a serious proposal,' she told reporters. The EU has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Around 2,400 officials and 'entities' – often government agencies, banks and organizations – have been hit. It's last raft of sanctions, imposed on May 20, targeted almost 200 ships in Russia's sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers, and tightened trade restrictions to stop produce that could be used for military purposes from reaching Russia's armed forces. Lorne Cook, The Associated Press
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Activist Greta Thunberg deported by Israel after Gaza-bound ship seized
Video Israel has deported activist Greta Thunberg after a Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized by the Israeli military.
CTV News
9 hours ago
- CTV News
Israel deports Greta Thunberg after Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized
Climate activist Greta Thunberg with other activists from a human rights organization meets with journalists in Catania, Italy, Sunday, June 1, 2025, ahead of their departure for the Mideast. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli) JERUSALEM — Israel deported activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, the country's Foreign Ministry said, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized by the Israeli military. Thunberg left on a flight to France and was then headed to her home country of Sweden, the Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. It posted a photo of Thunberg, a climate activist who shuns air travel, seated on a plane. Thunberg was one of 12 passengers on the Madleen, a ship carrying aid to Gaza that was meant to protest Israel's ongoing war there and shed light on the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group behind the journey. Israeli naval forces seized the boat without incident early Monday about 200 kilometres (125 miles) off of Gaza's coast, according to the coalition, which along with rights groups, said Israel's actions were a violation of international law. Israel rejects that charge because it says such ships intend to breach what it argues is a lawful naval blockade of Gaza. The boat, accompanied by Israel's navy, arrived in the Israeli port of Ashdod Monday evening, according to the Foreign Ministry. Other activists face deportation Adalah, a legal rights group in Israel representing the activists, said Thunberg, two other activists and a journalist had agreed to be deported and leave Israel. The other eight activists refused deportation, were being held in detention and their case was set to be heard by Israeli authorities, Adalah said. The activists were expected to be brought before a court later Tuesday, the group added. Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry, said the activists who were being deported Tuesday had waived their right to appear before a judge. Those who did not will face one and will be held for 96 hours before being deported, she said. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, was also among the passengers on board the Madleen. She has previously been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. It was not clear whether she was being immediately deported or detained. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that one of the detained French activists signed an expulsion order and will leave Israel on Tuesday for France. The other five refused. He said all the activists received consular visits. Sergio Toribio, a Spanish activist who was deported, slammed Israel's actions after he arrived in Barcelona. 'It is unforgivable, it is a violation of our rights. It is a pirate attack in international waters,' he told reporters. Questions over a breach of international law On Monday, Adalah, the rights group, said that Israel had 'no legal authority' to take over the ship, because the group said it was in international waters and it was headed not to Israel but to the 'territorial waters of the state of Palestine.' 'The arrest of the unarmed activists, who operated in a civilian manner to provide humanitarian aid, amounts to a serious breach of international law,' Adalah said in a statement. Amnesty International said Israel was flouting international law with the naval raid and called on Israel to release the activists immediately and unconditionally. Israel said its actions were consistent with international law. Israel viewed the ship as a publicity stunt, calling it the 'selfie yacht.' Israeli officials said that the flotilla was bringing 'meager' aid with what amounted to less than a truckload of goods. A longstanding blockade of Gaza Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza's Palestinian population. During the 20-month-long war in Gaza, Israel has restricted and sometimes blocked all aid into the territory, including food, fuel and medicine. Experts say that policy has pushed Gaza toward famine. Israel says Hamas siphons off the aid to bolster its rule. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war and took 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas is still holding 55 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said that women and children make up most of the dead. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the territory's population, leaving people there almost completely dependent on international aid. ___ Isaac Scharf And Areej Hazboun, The Associated Press Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Teresa Medrano in Madrid and Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
