Current Affairs Memo Russian Politics
Name: Thomas Blok
Studentnummer:
Vak: Russian Politics
Docent: Dr. M.J. Frear
Datum: 15/03/2026
, Current Affairs Memo: Losing Golos
In 2025 the only independent election monitoring organisation in Russia,
Golos, was forced to shut down. Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chair of
Golos, has been in prison since 2023 and has after an official court ruling
in 2025 been sentenced to five years in prison for running an undesirable
organisation.1 This court ruling rendered organisations he was associated
with inoperable, as has been the case for many people and organisations
since the introduction of the 2012 “foreign agents” law and the 2015
“undesirable foreign organisations” law.2 3 This shows that the case of
Golos is not an isolated development but can be regarded as part of a
broader development in Russian society. The fact that Golos has been
effectively removed from operating in Russia and the information that is
consequentially being obscured, serves as an example of how power is
being consolidated and how elections are increasingly becoming
plebiscites. In this memo the implications of the removal of an institution
like Golos will be linked to the broader political climate in Russia.
It is apparent that the existence of Golos has made the regime feel
threatened. One event that likely contributed to this feeling were the
protests caused by an increased awareness of election fraud in the 2011
Duma elections. This awareness can be largely attributed to election
monitoring done by Golos.4 Telltale signs of fraud such as ballot-stuffing
and fabricating votes have been uncovered in their reports. Being able to
prove these things also enables proving the decline of electoral fairness
that has been happening since the 1990s.5 Documented claims allow
researchers to lay out a well-founded claim about the democratic decline
happening in Russia. Golos furthermore reported that fraud had become
“a kind of shared ritual”. This supports a broader idea which has been
described as patronalism; political goals are managed through hierarchical
networks. According to Golos, bureaucrats and public-sector workers were
tasked with inflating election results, meaning fraud was being organised
1
Meduza, “Moscow Court Sentences Russian Election Monitor Grigory Melkonyants to
Five Years in Prison for Running ‘Undesirable’ Organization,” May 14, 2025,
https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/05/14/moscow-court-sentences-russian-election-monitor-
grigory-melkonyants-to-five-years-in-prison-for-running-undesirable-organization
2
Leah Gilbert, “Chapter 35: Civil Society and the State,” in Routledge Handbook of
Russian Politics and Society, 2nd ed., ed. Graeme Gill (London: Routledge, 2022), 402–
403.
3
Meduza, “Losing Golos,” July 9, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/07/09/losing-
golos
4
Cole Harvey, “Election Manipulation in Russia,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Politics (2024), 13.
5
Cole Harvey, “Election Manipulation in Russia,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Politics (2024), 14.
Name: Thomas Blok
Studentnummer:
Vak: Russian Politics
Docent: Dr. M.J. Frear
Datum: 15/03/2026
, Current Affairs Memo: Losing Golos
In 2025 the only independent election monitoring organisation in Russia,
Golos, was forced to shut down. Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chair of
Golos, has been in prison since 2023 and has after an official court ruling
in 2025 been sentenced to five years in prison for running an undesirable
organisation.1 This court ruling rendered organisations he was associated
with inoperable, as has been the case for many people and organisations
since the introduction of the 2012 “foreign agents” law and the 2015
“undesirable foreign organisations” law.2 3 This shows that the case of
Golos is not an isolated development but can be regarded as part of a
broader development in Russian society. The fact that Golos has been
effectively removed from operating in Russia and the information that is
consequentially being obscured, serves as an example of how power is
being consolidated and how elections are increasingly becoming
plebiscites. In this memo the implications of the removal of an institution
like Golos will be linked to the broader political climate in Russia.
It is apparent that the existence of Golos has made the regime feel
threatened. One event that likely contributed to this feeling were the
protests caused by an increased awareness of election fraud in the 2011
Duma elections. This awareness can be largely attributed to election
monitoring done by Golos.4 Telltale signs of fraud such as ballot-stuffing
and fabricating votes have been uncovered in their reports. Being able to
prove these things also enables proving the decline of electoral fairness
that has been happening since the 1990s.5 Documented claims allow
researchers to lay out a well-founded claim about the democratic decline
happening in Russia. Golos furthermore reported that fraud had become
“a kind of shared ritual”. This supports a broader idea which has been
described as patronalism; political goals are managed through hierarchical
networks. According to Golos, bureaucrats and public-sector workers were
tasked with inflating election results, meaning fraud was being organised
1
Meduza, “Moscow Court Sentences Russian Election Monitor Grigory Melkonyants to
Five Years in Prison for Running ‘Undesirable’ Organization,” May 14, 2025,
https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/05/14/moscow-court-sentences-russian-election-monitor-
grigory-melkonyants-to-five-years-in-prison-for-running-undesirable-organization
2
Leah Gilbert, “Chapter 35: Civil Society and the State,” in Routledge Handbook of
Russian Politics and Society, 2nd ed., ed. Graeme Gill (London: Routledge, 2022), 402–
403.
3
Meduza, “Losing Golos,” July 9, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/07/09/losing-
golos
4
Cole Harvey, “Election Manipulation in Russia,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Politics (2024), 13.
5
Cole Harvey, “Election Manipulation in Russia,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Politics (2024), 14.
