Putin says OSCE's refusal to send monitors prompted by U.S.

Source: RIA Novosti

ST. PETERSBURG, November 26 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the refusal of the OSCE's election monitoring body to dispatch observers to Russia's parliamentary elections was made on recommendations from the U.S.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, whose presence at elections is seen as critical by most Western governments, announced on November 16 it would not attend the December 2 polls, citing "unprecedented" restrictions imposed by Moscow and difficulties in obtaining entry visas. Russia has dismissed the charges, calling the decision politically motivated.

Putin said: "According to our data, this has once again been done on the U.S. State Department's recommendation, and we will take this into account in our intergovernmental relations with that country."

The Russian leader said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's refusal was aimed at "delegitimizing" the elections in Russia. "But they won't achieve this goal either," he said.



Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071126/89620089.html

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The only voices in Russia's legislature opposing Vladimir Putin after Dec. 2 parliamentary elections won't be strangers to autocratic one-party rule. They're the Communists, who monopolized power in the Soviet era.

Putin ``has more power today than the pharaoh of Egypt, the czar and the Soviet Union's general secretary combined,'' says Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.

After transforming the State Duma into a rubber stamp during eight years as president, Putin is about to turn the tables by making his successor subservient to a legislature dominated by the United Russia party -- and controlled by none other than parliamentary candidate Vladimir Putin. That way, he can continue running the country after relinquishing the presidency in May, delighting Russians who are reveling in the ninth year of an economic boom.

``Putin has followed a political strategy which has tremendous resonance in traditional Russian political culture, presenting himself as a `good czar' working for the benefit of the Russian people,'' says Andrew Kuchins, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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The group didn't even bother to pretend to monitor US presidential elections until 2004.