Russia – Sentencing of Grigory Melkonyants (15 May 2025)

France utterly deplores the five-year prison sentence handed down by a Russian judge against Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chairman of the election watchdog Golos, which was described as “undesirable.”

His sentence is yet another illustration of the Russian authorities’ desire to prohibit all independent election monitoring in Russia.

France calls on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and to abide by its international obligations with regard to the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms.