The co-chairman of “Holos” Melkonyants has had his arrest extended for 3 months

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow extended for three months, until January 17, 2024, the term of detention of Grigory Melkonyants, co-chairman of the “Voice” movement, which organized independent monitoring of elections in Russia.

Melkonyants was arrested in mid-August, three weeks before the All-Russian voting day. In the criminal case, it is alleged that “Golos” cooperated with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which, in turn, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia recognized as an “undesirable organization” and banned its activities on the territory of the country.

The co-chairman of “Voice” insists that his movement stopped cooperation with the European network immediately after it was banned.

• The movement for the protection of voters’ rights “Voice” was created in 2013 by members of the association of the same name, founded thirteen years earlier, but liquidated after the Russian authorities recognized it as a foreign agent. On August 18, 2021, the Ministry of Justice recognized the “Golos” movement as a foreign agent. Last year, Roskomnadzor blocked his website due to the publication of “unreliable publicly significant information about the Russian military operation in Ukraine.”