RUSSIA:Russia and the EU are embroiled in another row after the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe said it would not monitor next month's presidential elections in Russia because of severe restrictions placed on it by Moscow.
Neither the OSCE's election monitoring arm nor its parliamentary assembly would observe the election on March 2nd, a move that has incensed Russia and dealt a blow to the election's international credibility.
Christian Strohal, head of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said he was forced to pull his mission out because of the restrictions.
"We have a responsibility to all 56 participating states to fulfil our mandate, and the Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation in accordance with it," he said.
The Vienna-based OSCE, which is dominated by European nations but includes the US and several central Asia countries, had wanted to send a team to Russia in December, Mr Strohal said.
Moscow refused to issue an invitation until January 28th. It then invited 70 observers, saying they could come three days before polling day.
Russia later agreed to allow most observers to arrive on February 20th, an offer that ODIHR declared unacceptable.
"An election is more than what happens on election day. What is true for every election is also true for this one: transparency strengthens democracy; politics behind closed doors weakens it," said Mr Strohal.