Source: HRO.org (info), 02/12/11 

· Electoral rights  · Monitoring of violations   · Human rights defenders   · Moscow city & Moscow region 

Recent days have seen an open campaign of harassment of the Golos Association for the Defence of Voters’ Rights. The culmination of this campaign has been a complaint made by deputies from United Russia, LDPR and A Just Russia to the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. This was preceded by publications and statements with scurrilous pronouncements about a “fifth column,” issued by representatives both of the ruling party and of that part of the opposition that has accepted the rules of the Kremlin’s game. 

On 27 November at the United Russia congress in Luzhniki Vladimir Putin, presidential candidate and leader of the ruling party, openly said that the independent civic organizations running a system of monitoring the rights of voters and candidates were ‘Judases’. 

What is happening shows not only the thorough dishonesty of the organizers and executors of this unworthy campaign, but also the total fear of the authorities in the face of civic oversight of the rights of voters and candidates. [Read more]