Respected Russian Election Watchdog Golos Shuts Down Under Pressure

RFE/RL reports that Golos, Russia's leading independent election-monitoring group, announced on 8 July 2025 that it was shutting down after 25 years, following the five-year prison sentence handed down in May to its co-chair Grigory Melkonyants, whom a Moscow court found guilty of running activities for an 'undesirable' organisation. The charge rested on alleged links to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, designated undesirable in 2021, which Golos denied. Golos said the verdict left it no choice, since continuing would expose its members, and citizens seeking its legal advice, to prosecution; the report recalls the group's Map of Violations and its training of volunteer observers.