"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Opponents accuse Kremlin of election "farce"

MOSCOW-Opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev(picture left) said on Tuesday his refusal to hold television debates ahead of a March 2 election showed the ballot was a farce. Europe's leading election watchdog said it would not be able to monitor the presidential poll properly because the Kremlin had imposed serious restrictions on observer numbers and length of stay. No decision had been made yet on the mission, it said.Medvedev's opponents, wary of Putin's plans to retain influence behind the scenes, said the Kremlin wanted to silence them and that it would be even harder for opposition candidates to secure air time to get their views across."The Kremlin is afraid to face us," the main opposition candidate, veteran Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, told reporters on a campaign trip to Siberia's Altai region. Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, an outspoken Kremlin opponent who was disqualified from running in the poll by the Central Election Commission, urged opposition candidates to boycott the vote."My insistent recommendation is that you do not take part in this farce," said Kasyanov. The only rival candidates to Medvedev are Zyuganov, pro-Kremlin nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and little-known independent Andrei Bogdanov.Medvedev, buoyed by Putin's strong support, is way ahead of all rivals in opinion polls and gets blanket coverage from state-run media. The 42-year-old lawyer is deputy prime minister and chairman of Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom.Putin, unable to seek a third term under the constitution, is popular with most Russians for delivering economic growth and restoring order after the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union.
PUTIN'S STANCE
Official campaign rules envisage live television debates among candidates but in past elections Putin and his United Russia party have refused to take part, saying they saw no worthy politicians with whom to discuss policy.Senior United Russia member Vyacheslav Volodin said Medvedev was meeting ordinary citizens in an extensive campaign across Russia and that television debates would disrupt his schedule."The most important thing for us is real deeds, meeting people and solving actual problems, not wrangling in a TV studio," Volodin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.The election watchdog arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had not decided whether to go ahead with what would be a limited monitoring mission after the Kremlin had notified it of the restrictions."These conditions don't allow us to carry out a meaningful observation and therefore fulfill our mandate," said a spokesman for the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). "Russia's letter of invitation does contain serious restrictions both in terms of the number of observers, which is 70, and more importantly the timeframe for observation," said the spokesman."What we're doing is responding to the letter ... and asking that these restrictions be reviewed in the very nearest future and based on this exchange we'll make our final decision."
Last December, the ODIHR pulled out from plans to monitor a Russian parliamentary election in a dispute over visa delays and observer restrictions. Other observer teams heavily criticized the restrictions as unfair to opposition parties.For more on Russia's presidential election, please see our blog "Operation Successor" at blogs.reuters.com/russia.

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