INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian district attorneys have asked a judge to sentence the co-chair of the independent election display Golos to six years in prison on
charges of running an unfavorable organization, the exiled news site Mediazonareported Monday.Grigory Melkonyants wasarrested in August 2023
on accusations of working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), aMontenegro-based civil society
group.Prosecutors declare that Golos is almost a structural department of ENEMO, which Russiablacklisted as undesirable in 2021
ENEMO, which integrates election displays from 18 Central and Eastern European countries, denies the claims.Melknoyants has actually denied
the charges, which carry an optimum penalty of 6 years in prison.We are, naturally, stunned by the requested punishment, Mediazonaquoted
defense lawyer Yulia Ostrovskaya as telling the Basmanny District Court judge in Moscow.Founded in 2000, Golos had actually denounced
declared voting abnormalities in Russias 2011 parliamentary elections, the 2012 governmental vote, which saw President Vladimir Putin go
back to the Kremlin, and the 2020 constitutional referendum that paved the way for the Russian leader to extend his guideline to 2036
Golos trains election observers and also runs a hotline through which voters can report election violations.Russias Justice Ministry
identified Golos a foreign agent in 2021.
