A delegation of 25 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by Andreas Gross, arrived in Moscow on Wednesday. The observers are expected to meet presidential candidates, political party members, top election officials, representatives from the media and NGOs and diplomatic missions.
"We have repeatedly asked all observer missions to refrain from making statements that could affect voter behavior before the election results are known," Vladimir Churov said after a meeting with PACE monitors.
In an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta earlier on Thursday, Gross said that the coming presidential elections in Russia will be voting without real choice.
He also expressed disappointment with the refusal by presidential front runner Dmitry Medvedev to take part in TV debates, which he said could make elections fairer. Gross also criticized Medvedev for failing to demonstrate his adherence to democratic values and said there were a number of signals to suspect that the March 2 polls would be neither free nor fair.
Churov said that the goal of every election monitoring mission was "correct election monitoring, excluding interference in a country's domestic affairs."
In a statement summing up their visit to Moscow on February 7 and 8, a pre-election delegation of five PACE members said, "While the forthcoming election may appear competitive to some, with four candidates in the running, the real choice of alternatives is limited at best."
Commenting on the refusal by the OSCE's main election arm, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), to attend the polls following a row with Russia's top election authorities earlier this month, Gross said their absence would negatively affect foreign perception of the voting.
The Central Election Commission said late last week that a total of 194 foreign observers have received accreditation to monitor Russia's March 2 presidential elections so far, but the number of the observers could rise as the process is still ongoing, with documentation for 21 more monitors still pending.
