He addressed the media today to take stock of big job Russian embassies and consulates have done for the March 14 poll.
Several CIS countries have set up new polling stations-five in Moldova alone in a Russian ambassadorial endeavour. Georgia has done more than before a Russian parliamentary election of December last, with a total fifteen stations against a previous eleven. The greatest efforts concerned two Georgia's unrecognised republics-Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Mr. Yakovenko hopes there will be no problems with voting there.
The upcoming election will offer greater opportunities than before for pre-schedule votes, and voting outside polling stations. Russian nationals resident in Ukraine's Donetsk, Lugansk and Dniepropetrovsk, and Navoi and Samarkand in Uzbekistan will not have to leave their cities for the poll-a chance they have never had before.
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are ready with mobile polling stations, while Tajikistan is offering Russian border guards a pre-schedule poll.
A reporter asked the diplomat what has changed with polling arrangements in the post-Soviet Baltics since the December 7 State Duma election.
The situation differs from country to country, Alexander Yakovenko said to that. Thus, Lithuania has stations in the Russian Embassy, Vilnius, and the Consulate General in Klaipeda plus stations in Siauliai and Vysaginas. City councils have authorised pre-schedule voting in Kaunas.
As for Latvia, it has three stations at the Russian Embassy in Riga. The Consulates General in Daugavpils and Liepaja have a station each. Russian diplomats have arranged it with local authorities for pre-schedule voting in towns with considerable communities of Russian nationals, such as Jurmala, Jelgava, Ventspils and Rezekne.
Not enough has been done in Estonia, Mr. Yakovenko regrets. Though the Russian Embassy and ethnic Russian leagues made repeated appeals to establish more polling stations, these have been authorised only in the Russian Embassy in Tallinn and the Consulate General in Narva. Organised pre-schedule voting and itinerant stations are banned.
