Russia’s Justice Ministry has added the international public movement “In Defense of Voters’ Rights ‘Golos’” to the registry of “undesirable” organizations. The registry indicates that the Prosecutor General’s Office made the decision in late June 2026, although the agency did not publicly announce it. The registry gives no details about the structure or activities of this new movement.
Stanislav Andreychuk, a former co-chair of the Russian movement for the defense of voters’ rights Golos, said he does not understand what “international” group is being referred to. He noted that there had previously been an all-Russian Golos movement that the authorities designated a “foreign agent,” meaning the state itself treated it as a Russian organization.
Andreychuk said Golos had always been an association of Russian citizens. He wrote that he does not know what this international movement is and that none of his former colleagues he managed to speak with had created, or planned to create, anything like it.
He also said there is no public information about such a movement and suggested that, during an election period, the authorities may have created a deliberately vague category that could later be used against anyone whose conduct or position is deemed unacceptable during voting days or immediately afterward.
Golos had operated since 2000, first as an association and later as a movement monitoring elections. In 2013, the Justice Ministry labeled the association a “foreign agent,” after which some of its members created the Golos movement. It too was later designated a “foreign agent.”
In July 2025, the movement announced it was ending its work. That came after Golos co-chair Grigory Melkonyants was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of organizing the work of an “undesirable” organization. At the same time, neither the Golos association nor the Golos movement had previously been designated “undesirable” by the Russian authorities.