Russia held its September 2026 Duma elections without Golos, whose co-chair Grigory Melkonyants is serving five years, and without an OSCE/ODIHR invitation, observer network EPDE says
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Golos co-chair Grigory Melkonyants was sentenced on 14 May 2025 by Moscow's Basmanny District Court to five years for organizing the activity of an 'undesirable organization'; prosecutors argued Golos was part of the European Network of Organizations for Election Observation (ENEMO), which Russia declared undesirable, while his defense said Golos has no ties to ENEMO. The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) reports that the Golos movement was forcibly dissolved, that OSCE/ODIHR was not invited to observe the 18-20 September 2026 State Duma vote, and that it considers there were no credible domestic or international observers. EPDE says Russia's Central Election Commission reported over 1,100 international observers and that EPDE's preliminary research identified 36 it describes as fake. RIDL reports more than 1,000 cases of observers being excluded.
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- svoboda.org
Basmanny Court sentenced Melkonyants to five years on 14 May 2025; prosecution asked six.
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