The Russian independent election monitoring group Golos (Voice) has announced that it is ceasing operations 25 years after its inception. In a statement published on its website, the organization said it had been forced to take this step amid mounting pressure from Russian authorities and Golos members, who face increasing danger.
Golos describes itself as an “all-Russian social movement for the defense of voters’ rights.” Its statement said the group’s disbanding was linked to the sentencing of Golos co-chair Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison by a Moscow court in May. The court found Melkonyants guilty of cooperating with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), a foreign NGO blacklisted as “undesirable” in Russia.
The statement says “the court equates Golos with ENEMO, despite the fact that ENEMO has never observed elections or conducted any activity in Russia.” The watchdog fears that charges similar to those brought against Melkonyants could also be made against other Golos members, or those who have sought advice or legal assistance from the group. Golos insists that it has no connection to ENEMO and says the prosecution of Melkonyants is politically motivated and intended to silence election observers in Russia.
A post-Soviet institution
Golos was founded in 2000 and was among the first independent initiatives in post-Soviet Russia to focus on election monitoring. Inspired by the upheavals of the 1990s, Lilia Shibanova took charge of the organization and was soon joined by other human rights activists and lawyers, including Grigory Melkonyants.
From the outset, Golos observed growing state support for the ruling party, particularly after United Russia was founded in 2001. It also documented restrictions on independent election monitors starting in 2004. Golos made use of new digital tools to record violations and analyze election fraud while also developing services and platforms to increase election transparency. This included an interactive website mapping violations across Russia, allowing election observers and voters to post messages. Golos gained Russia-wide recognition amid the 2011 anti-fraud protests in the context of the State Duma election, and as a driver of the “Vote Against Crooks and Thieves” campaign initiated by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Golos came under state scrutiny after Russia passed its “foreign agents” law in 2012. Just one year later, Russia blacklisted the organization as a “foreign agent” because of an award it was to receive from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee — an award that Golos ultimately declined. Russian authorities repeatedly searched the Golos offices, confiscating computers and threatening the organization’s workers across the country. Because Golos members were listed as “foreign agents,” they were banned from participating in elections. The organization remained on the “foreign agents” list although it received no financial support from abroad.
In 2016, Golos was dissolved at the request of the Justice Ministry, but the group continued operating as an unregistered association. In 2021, Golos was again classified as a “foreign agent” and placed on a list of unregistered social associations. Even so, Golos continued coordinating the work of election observers, most recently during the 2024 presidential vote. Security forces, however, persecuted numerous Golos members, including Shibanova, Roman Udot, Melkonyants and Artem Vashenkov. All except Melkonyants eventually went into exile.
‘Very hard blow’
The end of Golos deals “a very hard blow against independent civil society, fundamental rights in Russia and free elections in Russia,” said Stefanie Schiffer, who chairs the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE). Schiffer said the public still wanted independent election monitors to operate within Russia. There is a “deeply rooted and entirely justified” need for people to “manage their own affairs,” Schiffer said. And now election monitoring will no longer exist in Russia in its current form.
“The closure of Golos is very sad news,” the journalist-turned-politician Yekaterina Duntsova, who wanted to run for the presidency in 2024 but was barred from doing so, told DW. “It is one of the few organizations that consistently advocated for civil election monitoring.” Golos established a culture of election monitoring in Russia, said Duntsova, who is confident that the group’s experience and insights will be passed on to a future election-monitoring movement. “As far as elections are concerned, the situation in Russia is difficult,” she said. “As soon as it changes, there will be new initiatives.”
Sense of optimism remains
Udot, the former Golos co-chair, told DW. that election observers had continued to work in Russia, despite increasing repression, bans on rallies and shady election result reporting. “The organization of civil control will suffer,” Udot said, “but the driving force will not disappear.” Udot said he was confident that the legacy of Golos and its standards would live on and observers would be able to work in Russia again at some point. “Elections are held, and observers remain,” he said. “It may sound strange, but we will be back.”
Ivan Shukshin, a former Golos member in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia who continues to monitor elections from abroad, told DW that the organization’s disbanding will undermine connections within civil society and increase its fragmentation. “The regime has achieved its goal,” Shukshin said. “Golos has been destroyed.” He expects that only pseudo-opposition parties permitted to participate in elections by Russian authorities will monitor polls.
“There will no longer be a coordination center, but the work on the ground will continue, municipal candidates will be assisted, and monitoring will continue, albeit without a common platform,” Shukshin said. He doubts that a new organization like Golos can emerge in the current conditions. “There will be no nationwide structure, and, as long as there is no regime change, nothing of the sort will emerge, though there will be individual initiatives,” Shukshin said, who continues to analyze Russia elections from abroad. “This is my country. Even if things keep getting worse, we have to keep an eye on everything. So that there is no vacuum.”
This article was translated from German.
