Russian election inspires chorus of international criticism

A joint parliamentary observation mission from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe concluded that the elections were "not fair" and "failed to meet" many of the organisations' standards for democratic elections.

The Portuguese EU Presidency expressed its "concern" about the detention of opposition marchers during the election over the weekend.

While the UK foreign ministry and the French government urged Russia to examine allegations of electoral fraud, the German government said that "measured by our standards, it was neither a free, fair nor democratic election", and concluded that "Russia was not a democracy and is still not a democracy".

But Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the charges and called the outcome a signal "that Russians will never allow their country to develop along the destructive path seen in some other countries of the former Soviet Union," he said.

Johannes Laitenberger, spokesperson for the Commission, said the EU is "aware of the allegations of irregularities" and said that the Commission will issue a comment on the elections after an analysis of all relevant reports.

A number of criticisms came from the European Parliament. 

Dutch Christian Democrat (EPP-ED) MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijten said that "if Russia wants to show it has an open and transparent democracy, it must investigate all reports of unfair elections. We must take the observations of the mission of parliamentarians from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) very seriously".

MEP Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats (ALDE), denounced the outcome of the elections, called Putin "a populist with the trappings of a dictator", and questioned whether "Russia still fulfils membership requirements" for the Council of Europe. "The election results show the failure of the West to understand Russia and its people", he said.

Polish Liberal MEP Janusz Onyszkiewicz predicts that the outcome of the elections "will give total control of all political institutions to the hands of one person whose programme of building even stronger state may lead to an autocratic dictatorship".

The Greens/EFA group said the election was a "sham" with "no democratic credibility", and called on the EU to take "a more responsible approach in its relations with the regime" by including "clauses on issues like minimum democratic standards" in energy contracts with Russia.