国际英语新闻:Russians Begin Voting in Parliamentary Elections

Voters in Russia's far east have begun casting ballots in parliamentary elections that are expected to favor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

The voting Sunday comes amid claims of campaign fraud and uNPRecedented intimidation of observers.

Members of Russia's only independent election monitoring group say their leader was detained for 12 hours Saturday at a Moscow airport.

Customs officials held Golos leader Lilya Shibanova at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after she refused to hand over her laptop to security officers who said they wanted to inspect the computer for illegal software.  She was released after she handed over the computer.

The detention follows an incident Friday in which a Moscow court fined Golos about $1,000 for compiling election law violations and posting them online.  Golos, (whose name means "vote,") has nearly 5,000 complaints of alleged violations that it has received via texting, e-mail and telephone.

Golos public relations manager Dmitry Merezhko told VOA the court ruling will not stop the group from doing its job Sunday.

The airport detention is just the latest incident concerning intimidation of Golos in the run-up to the elections.  A state-run television station aired a program Friday night attacking Golos.

Merezhko says the program is more of a concern than the court's ruling, and says he fears it could influence people still making decisions about the elections.  But Merezhko says the group has recently received more public support in return for all the media coverage.

Golos told VOA it will protest the court decision, but not until it is done monitoring the vote.