Russia Snubs Eu As Foreign Monitors at Elections Limited

Russia is heading for another showdown with the EU after failing to invite international election observers to monitor the country's parliamentary elections in December.

The central election committee has so far refused to allow a delegation of foreign observers to visit Russia ahead of the polls for the state Duma or lower house of parliament on December 2.

The committee yesterday hinted that it would issue an invitation to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - Europe's main human rights body. But it would only arrive at the last minute.

The apparent snub follows a report by the OSCE into Russia's last parliamentary elections in December 2003. The body described the poll as "free but not fair". It said there had been "clear bias" in the media in favor of president Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

Yesterday the OSCE said their monitors had been ready to fly to Russia since September, but were still waiting for an official invitation - a delay that was likely to jeopardize their mission. In previous elections monitors were already in place, officials said.

"It makes our work difficult. It's worrying for us that the state has not been forthcoming with an invitation," Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said.

The Kremlin is known to have been irritated by the OSCE's last critical report, and has dubbed the organization "anti-Russian". It has also failed to invite EU parliamentarians to monitor December's poll, accusing them of trying to meddle in Russia's internal affairs. But critics have accused the Kremlin of attempting to rig the results of December's elections in advance to secure an overwhelming victory for United Russia.

Yesterday Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent MP, whose Republican party was liquidated earlier this year on Kremlin orders, predicted that the regime was planning "mass falsification" of December's election result.

"The so-called elections are not democratic because people who want to participate in them can't," he told the Guardian. "It's selection before election."

Yesterday a central election committee spokesman said international observers would be invited to Russia in mid-November once all candidates were registered.