Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky:
“We can only regret the refusal of the OSCE / ODIHR to send observers for the upcoming September 17-19 elections to the State Duma. In my opinion, this is a kind of demonstrative demarche. References to the impossibility of carrying out a monitoring mission in reduced volumes are not entirely consistent and are more consistent in the spirit of the notorious double standards. As we remember, the OSCE / ODIHR observer delegation at the last US presidential election consisted of only 30 people and 11 experts. And such a quota did not prevent them from carrying out their activities.
Russia proposed to form a mission of 50 OSCE ODIHR observers and 10 from the OSCE PA. Agree, this is almost twice as much.
Therefore, this decision can most likely be considered politicized. Moreover, the corresponding request from the Russian side spoke only of sanitary standards, and not of restrictions for some other reason.
Of course, this will not affect the elections themselves and their legitimacy, they will be held in accordance with all democratic principles.”
