The co-founder of the Golos movement was sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-founder of the Golos movement (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison in a general regime colony. This was reported on May 14 by a correspondent of Izvestia from the Basmanny District Court of Moscow.

Melkonyants was also banned from engaging in political activities for nine years. He is accused of organizing the activities of an undesirable organization (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The state prosecutor asked the court to sentence Melkonyants to six years in a general regime penal colony. The defendant pleaded not guilty.

In September 2023, the Moscow City Court recognized the lawful arrest of Melkonyants in the case of conducting the work of an undesirable NGO in Russia. Earlier, his defense appealed the arrest decision issued in August. Then the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested Melkonyants until October 17, he was charged under Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Prior to that, the lawyer and his associates had a number of searches in eight regions of the country, including Moscow, Kazan and St. Petersburg, as well as the coordinator of Golos, Vladimir Egorov (recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent), and he was detained.

The Golos movement has been monitoring the election process in Russia since 2003. Throughout the organization's existence, anti-Russian centers have provided financial support to him. The activities of Golos' foreign partners were deemed undesirable. Nevertheless, Golos continues its activities, spreading incorrect data about the elections in the Russian Federation in order to denigrate their results.