NGO GOLOS PREPARES TO OBSERVE DUMA ELECTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 005532

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/26/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM RS
SUBJECT: NGO GOLOS PREPARES TO OBSERVE DUMA ELECTIONS

REF: MOSCOW 5338

Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns: 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: The NGO Golos is preparing to observe the
Duma elections on December 2, and has begun monitoring
pre-election activities. Golos has already run into legal
trouble in one region, and while its leaders are unaware of
any other impending legal action, they remain potentially
vulnerable because of the sensitive political environment,
their rationale for observing elections, and the
organization's legal structure. Golos is also subject to
charges that it is a tool of Western governments, because
almost 90 percent of its budget comes from USAID and because
it is increasingly identified with marginalized parties.
Nevertheless, Golos remains the only credible Russian NGO
capable of nationwide election day monitoring. End Summary.

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Plans to Observe the Elections
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2. (C) Russia's electoral law allows only accredited
journalists and members of political parties to observe
elections inside polling stations. Lyudmila Alekseyeva of
Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) noted that because of the new
law, MHG would be unable to observe elections this year as it
had done since 2000. Golos is preparing to have 3,000
monitors in polling stations around the country on election
day, and has established a toll-free telephone number for
citizens to report election law violations. Golos considers
its 3,000 observers as journalists for the quarterly
eight-page newsletter, "Citizens' Voice." While this claim
has not been legally tested, Shibanova is confident that
these journalist credentials would hold up in court.


3. (C) Golos Director Liliya Shibanova said that Golos's 80
long-term observers have already noted violations of
electoral law throughout the country, and that the Golos
hotline has been receiving calls from citizens across the
country. "There are already enough violations to question
the legitimacy of the elections," she argued, citing examples
of abuse of administrative resources, and pressure on
employees from state enterprises such as hospitals and
universities. On December 2-3, Golos will run a public
information center to send out news on the elections.

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Golos is Actually Two NGOs
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4. (C) Shibanova explained to us that there are two
registered NGOs named Golos: "Association Golos" and
"Regional Civic Organization Golos." Association Golos was
established in 2000 and is the publisher-of-record for the
quarterly newsletter, "Citizens' Voice." Association Golos
persists as a legal entity, but ended its operations in May
2007, dismissed its staff (who were promptly hired by RCO
Golos),and has no operating funds or a budget. Association
Golos is kept legally alive because it remains the owner of
the Golos newspaper "Citizens' Voice." Regional Civic
Organization Golos (RCO Golos) is the funded organization
that maintains an office and staff, operates the voter
complaint hotline, coordinates the activities of the 40
regional offices, and actually prints and distributes the
newsletter.


5. (C) RCO Golos was established to improve and decentralize
its operations, as well as to escape the threat of
potentially crippling tax liabilities. Association Golos had
received grants from foreign sources such as USAID, NED, NDI,
and the Mott Foundation. In standard requests to the GOR's
Commission on International Humanitarian and Technical
Assistance, Association Golos applied for an exemption to the
"profit tax" on foreign grants. The GOR did not respond to
these requests, and Association Golos maintained no reserve
funds to pay the taxes if the request was eventually denied.


6. (C) Golos Deputy Director Grigoriy Melkonyants explained
that Association Golos and RCO Golos have a legal agreement
for RCO Golos to print and distribute the quarterly
newsletter ostensibly written by Association Golos. Each
observer-journalist signs an agreement with Association Golos
before becoming accredited. Association Golos also has
signed a cooperative agreement with each regional branch of
RCO Golos. Melkonyants said that Golos legal advisors had
assured him that this arrangement was legally sound. Tetyana
Bogdanova, a Golos project manager, told us that Golos has
provided photo IDs and journalists credentials to each
observer, and that all electoral commissions in the 40
regions where Golos is active have been provided with color,
notarized copies of the Association-RCO agreements.

MOSCOW 00005532 002 OF 002



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Preparing for Trouble
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7. (C) Shibanova described RCO Golos's decentralized
organization as less vulnerable to official pressure. For
example, when the activities of Golos Povolzhye in Samara
were suspended last month (reftel),no other branch of the
organization was affected. However, the entire legal
justification for the observers as journalists still rests
entirely on Association Golos, which remains vulnerable to
suspension or closure.


8. (C) In order to prevent difficulties on election day,
Shibanova said that she was seeking a meeting with Central
Elections Commissioner Churov and Russian Foundation for Free
Elections (RFFE) Executive Director Andrey Przhdomskiy.
Przhdomskiy is also the head of the Public Chamber and NGO
Coordinating Committee on elections. She will seek
assurances from both that the accredited Golos observers will
be allowed access to polling stations across the country. She
and Transparency International's Yelena Panfilova are
planning a November 28 press conference to provide the latest
data from their long-term campaign observation efforts and
preview their plans for election day.

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Association with the West and Dissenting Voices
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9. (C) Golos is frequently associated with the West and with
dissenting voices in Russia. Golos presently receives 90
percent of its funding from USAID, and many of the regional
branches are run by former members of Yabloko, the Green
Party, or members of "Other Russia." Golos has a voter
hotline webpage named after its toll-free telephone hotline
(www.88003333350.ru),and welcomes other organizations and
parties to put this link on their webpages. To date, only
Yabloko and SPS websites carry the link, further establishing
the perception of Golos as a voice of dissent, not
impartiality.


10. (C) In Chelyabinsk, Golos is facing competition from a
pro-government NGO "Committee of Voters" (COV) which is
critical of Golos and its affiliation with the West.
Shibanova said that there was a PR campaign against Golos
organized by the COV, and that the Chelyabinsk electoral
commission has decided to work only with the COV. Shibanova
knew of no other regions where a local pro-government
electoral observer NGO had been formed.


11. (C) On November 25 on national television, a 45-minute
documentary by Arkadiy Mamontov mixed excerpts of his
"Velvet.ru" expose of Western support for colored revolutions
with footage of the Other Russia demonstrations on Saturday
and Sunday (septel). The documentary featured a segment on
NDI training for Golos monitors, and cited USAID support of
$20 million, $4 million of which it claimed illegally went to
Russian political parties.

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Comment
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12. (C) Golos is increasingly perceived as an opponent to the
government, and more often finds itself on the side of
opposition political parties instead of being perceived as a
non-partisan watchdog. The strongest press statements on
their website are directed at the government, not at
political parties. We believe that Golos is vulnerable to
legal action aimed at its organizational structure, and the
possibility remains that Golos journalists could be
challenged on election day by a finding that its newsletter
is not a real publication, and its observers, therefore, not
real journalists. The Embassy continues to reiterate the
importance of Golos maintaining the highest commitment to
non-partisan practice and public image.
BURNS