Election Watchdog Group Cancels Russia Mission
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
New York Times
MOSCOW, Nov. 16 — Western election observers on Friday pulled out of a mission to monitor Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary vote, citing restrictions imposed by the Kremlin on their work.
The cancellation by the election-monitoring arm of the 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe means the elections being held by President Vladimir V. Putin’s government may not be seen as legitimate by Western Europe and the United States.
The group’s decision to withdraw from the monitoring mission was the first such occurrence in Russia since the country undertook to hold free and fair elections and to allow access for observers to monitor them in 1990, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating. It will probably be seen as another breach between the government of Mr. Putin and the West.
The group, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or O.D.I.H.R., cited what it called unacceptable Russian demands to limit the mission’s size, making it impossible to determine whether the elections are marred by fraud. It also noted the failure on the part of the Russian authorities to issue visas for its advance team, with only two weeks to go before the vote. The Warsaw-based group said in a statement that Russia had so curtailed its work that it would be “unable to deliver its mandate under these circumstances.”
The observers evaluate opposition groups’ freedom to assemble, campaign and gain access to news media throughout the former Soviet Union. In Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or O.S.C.E., concluded in a statement that “the authorities of the Russian Federation remain unwilling to receive O.D.I.H.R. observers in a timely and cooperative manner.”
(Continued here.)
New York Times
MOSCOW, Nov. 16 — Western election observers on Friday pulled out of a mission to monitor Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary vote, citing restrictions imposed by the Kremlin on their work.
The cancellation by the election-monitoring arm of the 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe means the elections being held by President Vladimir V. Putin’s government may not be seen as legitimate by Western Europe and the United States.
The group’s decision to withdraw from the monitoring mission was the first such occurrence in Russia since the country undertook to hold free and fair elections and to allow access for observers to monitor them in 1990, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating. It will probably be seen as another breach between the government of Mr. Putin and the West.
The group, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or O.D.I.H.R., cited what it called unacceptable Russian demands to limit the mission’s size, making it impossible to determine whether the elections are marred by fraud. It also noted the failure on the part of the Russian authorities to issue visas for its advance team, with only two weeks to go before the vote. The Warsaw-based group said in a statement that Russia had so curtailed its work that it would be “unable to deliver its mandate under these circumstances.”
The observers evaluate opposition groups’ freedom to assemble, campaign and gain access to news media throughout the former Soviet Union. In Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or O.S.C.E., concluded in a statement that “the authorities of the Russian Federation remain unwilling to receive O.D.I.H.R. observers in a timely and cooperative manner.”
(Continued here.)
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