Russia: Election Monitors Pulling Out

Europe's primary election watchdog, ODIHR, is withdrawing its Russian election monitoring mission, citing unacceptable government restrictions.

The press release here.
Media coverage here.

The press release begins:

WARSAW, 7 February 2008 - The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) regrets that restrictions imposed on its planned election observation mission will not allow it to deploy a mission to the 2 March 2008 presidential election in Russia.

"We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission, even under the conditions imposed by the Russian authorities," said Ambassador Christian Strohal, ODIHR's Director. "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."

Image: Ambassador Christian Strohal, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev).