Russia Sentences Prominent Election Expert to 5 Years in Prison

The head of Russia’s only independent election watchdog was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after being convicted of working with an “undesirable” organization, according to Russian news agencies and his attorney.

Grigory Melkonyants, a co-founder of the Russian election monitoring group Golos, was jailed in 2023 after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and led a broad crackdown at home. Charged with “organizing the activities of an undesirable organization,” Mr. Melkonyants, 44, pleaded not guilty when his trial opened last September.

On Wednesday, he was convicted in a Moscow court and sentenced to five years in a prison colony, his lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, told The New York Times.

Golos, which was founded in 2000 and documented widespread election fraud, was labeled a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities in 2013. But the charges against Mr. Melkonyants relate to the group’s past affiliation with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which the Russian authorities declared “undesirable” in 2021 — making any association with it a potential crime. Golos has said it terminated its participation with the association following the decision.

The “undesirable” label has been used to outlaw unwanted groups, including NGOs and media organizations, and crack down on dissent. But Mr. Melkonyants was apolitical, Roman Udot, a longtime colleague who lives in exile, said.

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He noted that while countless civil activists fled Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Melkonyants insisted on staying put and focusing on his expertise, without taking sides.

Mr. Melkonyants in his office in Moscow in 2018. He is one of the co-founders of Golos, which came under pressure after documenting extensive voting irregularities in 2011 parliamentary elections.Credit…Andrew Osborn/Reuters

Golos — which means “vote” in Russian — documented extensive voting irregularities during the 2011 parliamentary elections. Anger about those violations sparked the biggest protests to date against Mr. Putin’s rule and spurred a broader opposition movement led by the late Aleksei A. Navalny.

After mounting pressure from the Russian authorities, Golos was designated a foreign agent in 2013. But it was only after the war in Ukraine started that Russia’s security services cracked down harder on the group, Mr. Udot said.

Following his arrest, Mr. Melkonyants was listed as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, which said the election expert was being “persecuted solely for his civil activism.”