Source: US News & World Report
“A Russian prosecutor on Monday requested six years in prison for Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of an independent monitoring group that has criticised the conduct of Russian elections. Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023, accused of organising the work of an ‘undesirable organisation.’ He has pleaded innocent at his trial. Prosecutor Ekaterina Frolova demanded that Melkonyants be given the maximum prison term and banned from public activity for 10 years. The defence said investigators had failed to prove their case. … Melkonyants is co-chair of the Golos monitoring group which first angered the authorities by publicising evidence of what it said was fraud in a 2011 parliamentary election that sparked opposition protests, and then in the presidential vote that returned President Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.” (05/12/25)