Russia:The international mission to monitor next month's parliamentary elections in Russia faces severe restrictions and even collapse because of delays in issuing visas.
Officials from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) warned yesterday they might cancel the mission entirely if they were not allowed to work to their own satisfaction.
"We will not be able to do a fully fledged mission like we would have liked to," said Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights which organises election monitoring. "If we get too little time to do anything meaningful we cannot exclude that we would stay at home."
Normally the first observers of the office arrive two months early to observe election campaigns, followed by an additional team a week before election day.
The OSCE said that the first observers would be allowed in on November 25th, a week before Russians vote. Russian sources suggested a group of 20 might be allowed in next Monday.
Russian officials say OSCE officials were slow to submit paperwork and were themselves responsible for the delay.
"Attempts to put the blame for its own tardiness on the inviting side, and even to try giving this a political subtext . . . shows that disorder reigns in the [ observer] office," a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry told AFP news agency.
Security and co-operation officials deny this charge but dare not do so in public for fear of jeopardising the mission further.
Russian authorities have already cut the number of observers of the election from 1,165 in 2003 to a maximum of 400 on this occasion. The OSCE mission is down from 450 to 70.
"We don't want to play games, that's not what we are here for," said Ms Gunnarsdottir, "but it's quite sad that our observation, a passive act of transparency, has been described more and more as an aggressive act."