GOLOS is a Russian election monitoring NGO founded in 2000 that observed over 8 national campaigns and trained over 25,000 observers. It documented election violations across Russia but faced increasing crackdowns from authorities beginning in 2011 as it brought attention to fraudulent activities. By 2014, GOLOS had been fined and had its branches suspended, and observers were expelled from polling places and deemed "foreign agents", limiting its ability to monitor elections as violations increased.