OSCE threatens Russian election boycott

OSCE threatens Russian election boycott

By Neil Buckley and Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: January 30 2008 19:22 | Last updated: January 30 2008 19:22

Europe’s leading election watchdog has warned Moscow that it will scrap its monitoring of Russia’s presidential poll on March 2 -- weeks after it boycotted parliamentary voting -- unless its observers can start work next week.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s elections arm said it wanted permission to send a “core” team of 20 observers to Russia next week. The national authorities have said observers cannot arrive before February 28.

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said the restrictions “don’t give us enough time for any kind of meaningful observation”.

The comments came as two senior Russian officials suggested that Russia’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy could damage inward investment.

Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia’s 1990s privatisation programme and now head of its electricity monopoly, told a Moscow investment conference that the confrontational approach carried risks amid a worsening global economy.

“We can continue to fight with the British Council and demand the closure of its branch in St Petersburg,” Mr Chubais said, referring to the dispute over the UK’s cultural body in Russia. “[But] we cannot make peace with this.”

Alexei Kudrin, finance minister and a deputy prime minister, told the same forum: “Our dependency on global economic ties, on our exports, is felt so strongly, that in the nearest future we need to adjust our foreign policy goals to guarantee stable investment.”

Russia’s trade surplus of $135bn (EUR91bn, ￡68bn) could disappear within three years if market conditions worsened, he said.

Limitations on foreign poll monitors are a visible sign of Russia’s more assertive stance. Besides time restrictions, the OSCE has been limited to 70 observers, compared with 387 for Russia’s 2004 presidential poll.

Russian election officials insisted they were complying with international standards and said effective monitoring would be “quite possible within the mandate” given to foreign observers.