RUSSIA: Independent election watchdog 'Golos' says it is coming under pressure for recording reports of violations in the Duma election campaign

Record ID: 346464

  • Title: RUSSIA: Independent election watchdog 'Golos' says it is coming under pressure for recording reports of violations in the Duma election campaign
  • Date: 2nd December 2011
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 1, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WHERE GOLOS OFFICE IS INTERIOR GOLOS OFFICE, VARIOUS OF GOLOS DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GRIGORY MELKONYANTS MEETING IN OFFICE WITH ALLEGED OFFICIAL FROM MOSCOW PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE GOLOS BADGES IN JAR ON DESK MELKONYANTS TALKING TO COLLEAGUES AFTER OFFICIAL HAS LEFT OFFICE LEAFLETS ON DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) GOLOS DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GRIGORY MELKONYANTS, SAYING: "In recent days a 'military conflict' has grown up around Golos and we have had to fight back, I don't know, it's like the woman from the Prosecutor's (office) who was just in here." GOLOS BADGES IN JAR ON DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) GOLOS DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GRIGORY MELKONYANTS SAYING: "We all feel threatened at the moment, we and our correspondents and when this whole tension started and we saw that three Duma deputies had issued an appeal to the General Prosecutor for an inquiry into Golos, not an inquiry actually, but the closure of Golos is what was written, and this has now impacted the joint project with Gazeta.ru and the link from their page."
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA79A82CZWC7O1J7EOQZ2FL1RXW
  • Story Text: Russia's independent elections watchdog Golos said on Thursday (December 1) it was subject to Kremlin pressure because of its role in collecting reports of election violations in the run-up to Sunday's (December 4) Duma poll.
    Russia launched an investigation on Thursday into Golos which accuses the authorities of mounting an attack campaign aimed at silencing it and banning its observers from Sunday's parliamentary polls. Moscow city prosecutors said they opened the probe following complaints by lawmakers calling for an end to Golos' campaign monitoring and protesting against the group's foreign funding.
    Golos, a non-profit group founded in 2000 runs a hotline and interactive map of vote violations called the 'Map of Violations', Golos says openly that it is funded entirely by European and U.S. groups. But it maintains the grants, including from USAID, the British Embassy in Moscow and the European Commission, which help it remain aloof from Russian politics.
    Golos' Deputy Executive Director Grigory Melkonyants said a visit on Thursday (December 1) by a woman he said was a representative of the Moscow Prosecutor's office was the latest in a series of events which he alleged were designed to put pressure on the group.
    "In recent days a 'military conflict' has grown up arounsystem.scripts.system.scripts.d Golos and we have had to fight back, I don't know, it's like the woman from the Prosecutor's (office) who was just in here," said Melkonyants.
    On Wednesday (November 30), online news portal Gazeta.ru removed a link to Golos' ' Map of Violations', an online map of campaign irregularities, prompting one of its deputy editors, Roman Badanin, to resign.
    "We all feel threatened at the moment, we and our correspondents and when this whole tension started and we saw that three Duma deputies had issued an appeal to the General Prosecutor for an inquiry into Golos, not an inquiry actually, but the closure of Golos is what was written, and this has now impacted the joint project with Gazeta.ru and the link from their page," said Melkonyants.
    Days before the elections the Golos' website has filled with over 3,000 allegations of violations, many of them including video and documentary evidence that has embarrassed United Russia officials.
    "We are the only organisation which is independent of the government at the moment, in this arena. It's a fact that the political parties are all controllable and if tomorrow they are told to sign something against 'Golos' they will sign it. They understand that 'Golos' is doing useful work," said Melkonyants.
    He said the alleged smear campaign against Golos began when journalists he said were from the Kremlin-friendly NTV television station came to the group's offices in Moscow earlier this week. A video posted on Golos' website shows them shouting and asking questions about its financing. A man's voice, reportedly Melkonyants', is heard throughout repeating the phrase 'You are Surkov's propaganda', in an apparent reference to Kremlin strategist Vladislav Surkov, which was intended to make the footage unusable in an edited TV story.
    "We understood it was ordered, an order to discredit (Golos) to put out a negative report, it's already in the programming that it will be shown on Friday. I won't be surprised if we are presented as the most evil force in the world," said Melkonyants.
    Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will make up the bulk of monitors at the polls on Sunday. The group is fielding 200 observers, the most Russia would allow.
    "We have a total of 160 observers here to observe elections on the day of proceedings - the opening of the polling stations, the casting of the ballots, and the counting of the ballots and the tabulation of the results," Jens Eisenbacher ,Spokesperson for the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, told Reuters.
    "These short-term observers come in addition to 40 long-term observers who have been in the country already since the beginning of November to follow the long-term process, the registration of candidates, the campaign, the media reach of the campaign, the legal framework for this election,"he added.
    The OSCE observers attended an internal briefing on Thursday before starting the journey to their allocated polling stations on Friday (December 2).
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