Photo: mid.ru
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the refusal of Ukrainian authorities to accredit Russian citizens as observers to the presidential elections in Ukraine from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR) discrimination. In this situation, Russia is forced to renounce sending the observers in Ukraine.
Kiev once again discredited itself by its decision, violating OSCE commitments in the field of elections. This is evidenced by the refusal to open polling stations on Russian territory. Thus, Ukrainian authorities have deprived millions of Ukrainian citizens living in our country of the right to vote.
Russian diplomats are convinced that the OSCE leadership, including the ODIHR and the states participating in the organization understand all of this clearly. Many of their representatives have repeatedly urged Kiev not to violate international standards of democracy.
The illegal actions of Kiev against Russian observers are reflected in the report of the ODIHR monitoring mission. There are other comments recorded.
What we are seeing in Ukraine today proves that Kiev clearly has something to hide from its residents and the international community, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.
MFA Russia promised to monitor the election campaign in Ukraine and to work closely with the ODIHR and other OSCE executive structures, which are called to monitor the situation of democracy and human rights in this country and promote their observance.
Foreign Ministry also expressed hope that the ODIHR would be able to provide the international community with an objective picture.
It should be recalled that Ukraine adopted a law prohibiting Russian observers from participating in the presidential elections. The authors of the document believe that presence of Russians in the elections would allegedly lead to information attacks “by distorting the facts regarding the electoral process”.
Russkiy Mir
