Lilia Shibanova: Do not lose the 'Golos'

The head of Association 'Golos' explained the organization position on the searches carried out in the NGO office

The head of Association 'Adovocacing for the Rights of Voters GOLOS' Lilia Shibanova explained the organization position on the one more wonted case of pressure inflicted by the authorities: the day before the 'Golos' office was searched

Searches of the 'Golos' office and its activists – as well refers to the launch of the 2015/2016 election campaign and continuation of lawlessness invoked in 2011. It has been already anounced in the news that the searches were justified with the alleged failure to pay taxes on the Western grants. Agents, grants, unpaid taxes – the state channels try to stick such 'revelations' as easy as one, two, three.

Our response to the propaganda is open and substantial. A brief history of the issue as follows. 'Golos' did receive foreign grants, as many did, including the government-related organizations. Only, unlike the others, we had to pay taxes on grants, in legal terms - donations. For some reason the Taxation Institution does not perceive election observation as the 'socially useful activity'. In 2011, we, in hindsight, had to pay additional taxes. We went through all the trials and paid 12.5 million rubles for the year 2009 – 2011, not including the payroll taxes, 'eating' at least one-fifth of any grant.

'Golos' paid all fictive and exposed post facto financial commitments. It would seem what else could be taken away, but first our organization was declared as a foreign agent and then they took on our regional partners. The searches in Moscow were carried out in relation to the criminal case brought against the Samara organization 'Golos Volga'. Our colleagues, who have received donations from Moscow 'Golos', were committed to once again pay the taxes on the same assets, for which all sorts of possible and impossible payments were already done. Anyways this case will fall apart, even in a most controlled trial. It shall be closed due to the statute of limitations, it falls under two grounds of amnesty, but it remains open for one simple reason – the government needs an excuse to 'induce nightmare' for independent observers.

In the battle, the government uses the 90s dashing bandit methods. Criminal cases are initiated, just at dawn someone breaks in for carrying out a search, not even introducing themselves as the police. At 6 a.m. a girl rang a door bell at the apartment of the 'Golos' coordinator Gregory Melkonyants, informing that allegedly he flooded several floors and then she covered the peephole. Anyone of us in such a situation would not open the door. Police informed that it was a search only after breaking into the apartment together with a bunch of 'LifeNews' and NTV 'journalists'.

Afterwards the 'flooded neighbours' brigade and the 'journalists' broke in the apartment of another our coordinator, Roman Udot. What they were looking for in relation to the case of alleged tax evasion of Samara observers? This is an absurd, in case of Roman there is an additional nuance: he joined us in 2012, so even hypothetically he had no connection with grants received in 2009-2011.

I described in detail the entire history that any of our supporters could convincingly debate and expose the lies of the propagandists. For many years the government has been struggling with the independent observers. This happens for one simple reason: each year the demand for fraud is growing. It is not enough anymore to falsify election results on the polling day. Now the list of candidates indicated on the ballot paper must be ‘sterilized’ as well. In 9 out of 10 cases only candidates selected and approved by the authorities are enrolled. People half-instinctively understand all this and simply refrain from going to the polls. We have a situation, where the mayors of major cities are elected when the turnout is 10-12%. This clearly indicates the illegitimacy of the procedure and its results. Therefore, the authorities will be forced to falsify the entire process. I guess, considering the current electoral cycle, the turnout will be as well falsified. It is not enough to obtain 92-95% for the incumbent governor; now it is necessary to ensure such results for any candidate or list of candidates supported by the government. It is not so difficult, of course, if independent observers are eliminated.

Therefore at the moment the process goes in two different directions. First, the pressure on’Golos’ and our colleagues continues and intensifies. We have been working for 15 years with observers and experts and we are capable of arranging professional election observation - from the moment of registration of candidates to the vote count. We are fully competent to train observers and commission members, to collect and disseminate information, to openly share it and make available to each voter. Moreover, for the last two years we have been observing elections inside the country exclusively with the support of Russian grants, the so-called ‘presidential’ grants, which we have been denied recently.

How to resist to what is happening? It is important not to be afraid, do not give up and continue striving for fair elections. Just the other day we renewed the ‘Map of violations’ (kartanarusheniy.org), launched in 2011-2012. Anyone indifferent can report any violations by calling the hotline or describe the situation right on the website. We are already observing elections in different regions of the country and training observers for the single voting day. After all, the most important thing to do - to arrive to the polls and to make your voice heard.

Source: Novaya Gazeta