Osce Refusal to Send Observers Undermines Credibility of Duma Elections – Rights Activists

MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) – The decision by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR) not to send observers to monitor the Duma elections damages Russia, which is thus falling out of the “European legal framework,” say leaders of Russian human rights organizations.

“The conflict between Russia and the OSCE is growing. And this is the first sign of how the international community might perceive the parliamentary elections in Russia,” Director at the Memorial Human Rights Center Oleg Orlov told Interfax on Friday.

The recent relations between Russia and the OSCE can be described in general as a conflict, he said.

“Russia is not happy about OSCE human rights policy and its monitoring of elections in former Soviet republics,” the rights activist said

The OSCE office’s decision not to send observers to Russia is an alarming signal for Moscow, he said.

Another rights campaigner, leader of the For Human Rights movement Lev Ponomaryov told Interfax on Friday that the absence of OSCE observers “undermines credibility of the Russian parliamentary elections in the eyes of international community.”

Liliya Shebanova of the Golos Association said, that the absence of OSCE observers is bad for Russia.

“We are falling out of the legal framework of Europe, the OSCE and are becoming a lost world,” Shebanova said.

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