Russia to push for having own monitors observe Ukraine elections

Russia will seek that Ukraine allow access of Russian observers to monitor presidential elections, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. “There are international institutions to this end, including the OSCE/ODIHR,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which, in particular, sets up observation missions in elections held in OSCE member states, Karasin said at a press conference in Moscow.

There is international law and an internationally established practice, according to which our observers have the right to participate in the procedure for monitoring the Ukrainian elections. We will proceed from this," said Karasin. Earlier, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry a list of possible members of the OSCE monitoring mission at the presidential elections in Ukraine. Lavrov claims that Moscow received an invitation to the Ukrainian elections. In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said that Kyiv would not accept applications from Russian observers.

UNIAN