Vlad Paranoid Strikes Again

Group won't monitor campaign in Russia
The principal election-observation organization in Europe said Thursday that it would not send observers to monitor Russia's presidential campaign and election on March 2, citing severe restrictions imposed on its work by the Russian government.

The cancellation, announced by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or Odihr, was not a surprise. But it formalized the intense differences between the way Russia's nominal democracy is viewed abroad and the way the Kremlin and its state-controlled news media seek to portray it.

The issue is especially delicate here. President Vladimir Putin, whose second term is ending and who cannot legally seek a third term, is carefully managing his succession in a process that includes, at least formally, an election by popular vote.

Further, the Kremlin has been deeply wary of independent observers, and has blamed detailed reports of rigged elections in other countries for fomenting public unrest and even revolutions.

The cancellation signals another impasse between the West and the Kremlin, which, flush with oil money and renewed confidence, has shown a willingness to shed the international and diplomatic commitments it made after the Soviet Union's collapse.

"We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission, even under the conditions imposed by the Russian authorities," Ambassador Christian Strohal, the organization's director, said in a statement from Warsaw, where it is based. He added, "The Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation."

Russia reacted angrily to the decision, but the United States immediately signaled its approval.

"We support Odihr's decision," David Kramer, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state whose bureau covers Russia, said by telephone. "Countries should be accustomed to the fact that respected international organizations come in and observe and monitor their elections. Russia should not be exempt from that; it is part of developing into a normal democratic society."

Kramer and other diplomats said that the conditions imposed by Russia on observers had made a full and honest assessment of the election process impossible.

The limitations, diplomats have said in recent weeks, include Russia's refusal to allow a typical set of long-term observers access to the country; these observers monitor candidate registration, news media content, the government's use of state resources, and conduct during the campaign period.

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Read it all at The IHT.