Russia’s beleaguered civil society suffered another setback on July 8 as the country’s leading independent election-monitoring group, Golos, announced it is shutting down after 25 years of operations.
The announcement underscores the Kremlin’s accelerating campaign to silence dissent, eliminate independent oversight, and tighten its grip on political life ahead of future elections.
In a stark statement posted on its website, Golos—long regarded as Russia’s most credible election watchdog—said it was forced to dissolve after its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, was sentenced to five years in prison. A Moscow court pronounced the sentence in May after finding Melkonyants guilty of running activities for an “undesirable” organization, a charge Golos insists is politically motivated.
“The verdict leaves us no choice,” the group said, warning that continuing its work would expose members, and even ordinary citizens seeking legal advice, to criminal prosecution. “This is the end of a story which, according to investigators and the court, lasted 25 years.”
Over its decades-long existence, Golos documented thousands of alleged election violations, trained volunteer observers, and fought to uphold Russia’s constitutional guarantees of free and fair elections. Its widely used Map of Violations project provided an unprecedented level of transparency during campaigns—an achievement that made the group a target for authorities in a system increasingly intolerant of independent oversight.
Melkonyants was arrested last August and accused of links to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which Russia designated “undesirable” in 2021. Golos has denied any such ties, saying it had no affiliation with the group and describing the charges as an effort to criminalize its civic work.
“The arrest and imprisonment of our friend and colleague had one goal: to make Golos fall silent,” the organization said.
The Kremlin’s crackdown on dissenters did not stop there. On the same day Golos announced its closure, Dmitry Kisiyev, the former campaign manager for liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin, revealed that Russia had revoked his citizenship.
Kisiyev, who gained Russian citizenship in 2014 following Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, posted a Federal Security Service (FSB) document on Telegram citing his “actions posing a threat to national security” as grounds for the move.
“This decision comes precisely when I’m actively planning a State Duma campaign—meeting people, discussing plans, scouting for candidates,” Kisiyev wrote. “It’s clearly a political decision.”
The strategist said he received the FSB notice after being detained on the street in Tomsk while heading to a training session. Kisiyev has recently worked with the centrist “New People” party and maintained ties with Nadezhdin, who mounted a rare liberal challenge to President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s 2024 presidential election.
In 2023, Putin signed a law allowing authorities to revoke naturalized citizenship from individuals deemed to threaten national security. While those stripped of citizenship can theoretically reapply after three years, critics say the measure is a powerful tool for political retribution.
Human rights groups and Western governments have long accused Moscow of systematically dismantling the last vestiges of independent civic life. With media outlets shuttered, opposition leaders jailed or exiled, and NGOs branded as “foreign agents” or “undesirable,” the space for activism and dissent has narrowed to the point of collapse.
The demise of Golos marks another grim milestone. The group’s founders reminded Russians that their mission was never about partisan politics but about defending the constitutional rights of voters.
“Election monitoring is not political activism,” their statement said. “It is a means of defending Russia’s constitutional order and the rights guaranteed to citizens by the state.”
