Russian court jails prominent election monitoring activist for 5 years

A court in Moscow has convicted one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on charges of organizing the work of an “undesirable” organization and sentenced him to five years in prison. Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after invading Ukraine in 2022. Golos has monitored for and exposed violations in every major election in Russia since it was founded in 2000. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities.