# The head of Russia’s only independent election watchdog was sent to a penal colony for five years after a court found him guilty of working with an undesirable organisation. The 44-year-old co-chairperson of the Golos movement, Grigory Melkonyants, who was arrested in August 2023, pleaded not guilty. Reuters quotes human rights campaigners who describes the case against him as part of a wider crackdown on civil society that has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia sentences head of election watchdog to five years in a penal colony