17 September 2016, 12:17 GMT
VIENNA (Sputnik) — Scuffles broke out outside the Russian Embassy in Kiev late Saturday and continued into Sunday as Russians in Ukraine prepared to vote in the Russian parliamentary election.
"We now expect OSCE monitors to report the events of last night, from [September] 17 to 18, yesterday’s scuffles and today’s extremist attacks on voters," Russia’s envoy to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, told RIA Novosti.
Lukashevich said OSCE chair Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany had ordered to monitor the situation close to the Russian diplomatic missions in Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odesa after polling stations were set up there ahead of Sunday’s voting.
Russia hoped that the presence of an OSCE monitoring mission would discourage "hostile actions against Russian establishments abroad," he said. "Unfortunately, this was not the case," the envoy added.
