Anger As Putin Restricts Election Observers

Russia was accused yesterday of imposing unprecedented restrictions on foreign observers visiting the country to monitor parliamentary elections in early December, amid growing concern that the Kremlin might manipulate the vote.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reacted angrily to a letter from Russia's central election commission saying that the monitoring body's observer mission "could comprise up to 70 people". Four hundred and fifty OSCE observers were allowed to monitor Russia's last elections to the state duma, or lower house of parliament, in 2003.

Urdur Gunnarsdottir, speaking for the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, told the Guardian that the curbs would "seriously limit our possibilities to do what we see as a meaningful observation".

"We have never received an invitation with restrictions before," she said. "This is completely unprecedented in the history of the organization, and we have observed over 150 elections. The OSCE procedure has always been an open invitation."

Speaking at a briefing for foreign journalists, Dmitry Peskov, deputy press spokesman for Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, denied that Moscow was acting improperly. "No restrictions that do not correspond with Russia's obligations as a member of the OSCE have been applied," he said. He said that the work of previous OSCE observer missions to Russia had been "not satisfactory" and Moscow wanted reforms to the organization's procedures. "We are not jeopardizing our obligations ... [but] we are free to apply a system within the framework of our obligations that would, in our view, fit the whole procedure of elections in Russia."

Campaigning for the December 2 parliamentary poll officially begins on Saturday, but the result is widely seen as a foregone conclusion. Almost 70% of the electorate is expected to vote for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

The OSCE clashed with Moscow last month when it complained that it had been waiting since September for an official invitation to enter Russia. Long-term observers normally arrive six weeks before a poll to monitor the election campaign and check for bias in media coverage.

Moscow finally issued its invitation this week, but slashed the size of the delegation to 300-400 people, including the 70 observers and members of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly. The reason behind the restrictions appears to be the OSCE's critical report on the 2003 elections, which concluded that they were "free, but not fair", with the local media showing a "clear bias" in favor of United Russia.

Moscow says the OSCE has a strong pro-western bias and strives to produce "forced democratization" in former Soviet states. In February Mr Putin complained that it was being transformed into "a vulgar instrument designed to promote the foreign policy interests of one or a group of countries".