Ukraine LIVE: Russia rocked by saboteur attack hours before peace talks | World | News
Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Moscow court for allegedly working with an “undesirable” organisation.
He denied the charges, which stem from Golos’s past ties to a European election monitoring group banned in Russia, and called the case politically motivated.
His sentencing marks a major escalation in the Kremlin’s post-Ukraine invasion crackdown on dissent, which has seen activists, journalists and NGOs targeted.
Memorial, Russia’s Nobel Prize-winning human rights group, has recognised Melkonyants as a political prisoner.
