By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia Thursday warned democracy watchdog Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) against its election monitoring panel’s threat of boycotting the country’s March 2 presidential polls.
OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) insisted on sending at least 50 of its observers to Russia Feb 15, five days before the date proposed by Moscow, to monitor electioneering before sending its team of election observers. The body has threatened to boycott the election if the conditions are not met.
“This is an ultimatum. A self-respecting country never accepts ultimatums,” Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, said at a news conference here Thursday.
He also criticized the Warsaw-based ODIHR for “inventing its own rules” and being “absolutely non-transparent.”
Lavrov expressed regret that in its dealings with Russia the organization has felt the need to “rigidly insist, I would even say impolitely, that they need to arrive a month in advance, when it’s not clear what they’d spend that time doing.”
The ODIHR boycotted Russia’s parliamentary polls Dec 2, citing visa delays and “unprecedented restrictions,” and the OSCE subsequently declared the polls “not free and fair.” However, observers from Russia and a number of erstwhile soviet republics rejected OSCE’s report.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday: “The fact that the ODIHR is not ready to cooperate with Russia within the mandate fixed in an invitation submitted by our Central Election Commission is further proof that the OSCE’s institution badly needs reform.”
Russia’s Central Election Commission had earlier invited ODHIR observers to arrive in Russia from Feb 27-28, but after a request from the election monitor the commission agreed to let 25 of the 70 observers into the country by the end of this week, and the remainder after Feb 20.