In Mari El books of ‘foreing agents’ were seized from ‘Golos’

‘I was the first and afterwards they turned to Golos observers. Now, in turn everyone is summoned to MIA Police Department in Mari El for being questioned as a witness in the case, where I am accused of campaigning on September 11’, – on September 30, the coordinator of the regional branch of the movement ‘Golos’ Diana Grigorieva posted on her Facebook wall.

According to the information shared with news portal ‘7x7’ by ‘Golos’ observer, who monitored elections in Mari El on the Polling Day, he was indeed summoned to the Ministry of Interior in Mari-El: ‘The police officer told me that books that I used as a member of independent election observation mission – The Observer Guide – was issued by a ‘foreign agent’ to the ‘Golos-Ural’. Therefore, they have seized all such books; in total I had three copies’.

it is worth noting that the books used by ‘Golos’ observers in Mari El were published in 2014. ‘Golos-Ural’ was involuntary included in the registry of ‘foreign agents’ at the end of July 2015.

We would like to remind that after the Elections held on September 13, Police summoned Dina Grigorieva as a witness to the local Counter Extremism Centre. ‘However, the detective informed that I was accused of distributing campaigning materials. Allegedly a voter filed a complaint. I do not know what is perceived as campaigning material as in recent weeks the regional branch of ‘Golos’ disseminated through social networks only the information on recruitment of volunteers and election observers to take part in election observation at the polling stations of the Republic on September 13’, – then stated Grigorieva.

Another recent attempt to put pressure on the regional branch of movement ‘Golos’ was a case reported in Tomsk, where as well allegedly printed materials of ‘foreign agents’ were disseminated. On September 11, after the training for observers, police detained Golos volunteers in Tomsk.

‘We have attended the final seminar on election observation before the Polling Day, some volunteers already went out, left the building, and some stayed here with me. I received a message from one of the volunteers that he was detained by the police. I called him to find out what happened, he said that he had been taken to the police department. They wanted to question them as witnesses in regard to the dissemination of ‘foreign agent’ books ... Six people were detained, young people, mainly students’, – said the ‘Golos’ coordinator in Tomsk Xenia Fadeeva in an interview with the ‘News agency TV2’.