MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) is aware that the Golos movement (deemed a foreign agent in Russia) is preparing to stage provocations during the three-day voting period (March 15-17) for the Russian presidential election, CEC Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said during a meeting at the CEC Information Center.
"[Speaking of] the American Golos project <…> poor Melkonyants (lawyer Grigory Melkonyants, co-chairman of the Golos movement - TASS) is in jail instead of all his accomplices, while they are preparing provocations from there (from the US - TASS)," she said, providing no clarification.
The CEC chairwoman expressed confidence that "we will surely be receiving bomb threats," as well as seeing other provocations at the polling stations. "I am pretty sure that we will handle them easily," she summarized.
Last August, Moscow’s Basmanny Court placed Melkonyants in custody. The lawyer was charged with organizing the work of an undesirable NGO in Russia under Part 3, Article 284.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, due to instances of interaction between Golos and the European Commission for Election Observation.
The Golos movement became the first organization to be included in the Russian Ministry of Justice’s new list of unregistered organizations that carry out the functions of a foreign agent.