Press release issued on 28 February 2012

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

For the first time in the last ten years we are experiencing an unprecedented surge in the public activity of Russian citizens. People in the most far-flung regions, of varied social background, ethnic origin and religious belief, are about to take an important decision:

Which of the contenders will they choose in the race to become president of Russia?

Which candidates will they be supporting in the regional and municipal elections?

For the last twelve years GOLOS has worked to turn independent monitoring of elections in Russia into an institution ensuring that all candidates and voters enjoy equal rights. On 4 March 2012 more than two thousand correspondents from our newspaper “Grazhdansky Golos” will be attending voting stations in 44 of the Russian Federation’s 83 regions.

There are more than 95,000 polling stations in our country. We cannot be everywhere. As representatives of the media, however, you are entitled by law to attend a polling station on the day of the elections (see Articles 2.52 and 30.1 of the Law that defines the “basic guarantees of the electoral rights of RF citizens”). You are entitled to observe how the voting takes place, how the ballot is counted and then receive a certified copy of the results.

It takes literally 90 minutes to learn the basics of election monitoring. The “Study” module on our site at http://golos.org/obuchenie will show you how. You can read or download our information and instructions.

Please get involved. The more people who monitor the elections and the counting of the vote, the greater our confidence that every vote cast will be honestly counted.

See you at the polling station

GOLOS

For additional information (Russian only), call Olga Novosad on +7 (909) 638-3305 or send an email to press@golos.org