No Russian political party has asked for outside observers to monitor upcoming Duma elections because the outcome is already certain.
Foreign observers will come to the December Duma elections in Russia, but there will be only about 300 of them, as opposed to the 1,165 that attended in 2003. Despite these reduced numbers, their coming has already caused a scandal and President Vladimir Putin personally had to interfere. First the Central Election Commission held off sending invitations to the observers; then it was announced that the number of observers will be much smaller than at the previous elections. The problem was solved only after the leaders of European countries expressed their concern to Putin during the recent EU-Russia summit in Portugal. However, the problem as a whole still remains.
It would be surprising if the upcoming elections did not cause the relationship between Russia and European organizations to worsen. Many things have changed in Russia since the parliamentary elections of 2003. In line with the newly developed theory of "sovereign democracy," Russian authorities tend to take offense when foreigners discuss Russia's internal problems. Today, the main criterion for deciding whether a human rights advocacy organization in Russia is "appropriate" is the source of its financing: if it receives foreign grants, then it is "an agent of foreign influence." Russia's political relationship with the European Union is at its lowest since the fall of the Soviet Union and Russia's relationship with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is even worse. This organization used to send the majority of the observers that attended Russian elections, but this time it is going to send only 70 people. Moscow has openly doubted whether this relationship needs to be preserved at all.
