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The Post-Election Blame Game
The Government and Its Critics Trade Blows Over Falsifications
Andrew Roth - Russia Profile - russiaprofile.org - 3.7.12 - JRL 2012-44

Both local Russian organizations and foreign states are trading barbs with the Russian government over Sunday's presidential elections. While protesters and organizations like the League of Voters have refused to recognize the recent elections as legitimate, the United States and Europe are walking a fine line between open criticism and recognizing a need to work with the next administration under Vladimir Putin. In turn, Russian officials have lashed out at their critics, saying criticism of the elections is politically motivated. Kremlin and St. Basil's

At a jam-packed press-conference in central Moscow today, the League of Voters, an elections monitoring commission christened on the heels of the opposition movement, announced that it would not recognize Sunday's elections. "The League of Voters regretfully believes that a cruel insult against civil society of Russia was carried out on March 4," the group announced. "Concerning these massive violations, the league considers it impossible to recognize the results of the presidential elections in Russia 2012."

Dmitry Oreshkin, a liberal political analyst and a member of the leading committee of the organization, said that there had been irregularities at close to ten percent of all polling stations across Russia, according to Russian elections monitors. Discounting the ballots supporting Putin that were submitted at those polling stations, Putin would have won only 53 percent of the vote ­ ten percent less than he won on Sunday, but still not enough to force an election run-off.

Governments around the world have been facing a similar conundrum ­ how to respond to a vote that many believe had irregularities and falsifications to Vladimir Putin's advantage, but which might not have been crucial to securing a first-round win. So far the United States and Europe have not declared the elections "illegitimate," but have been reserved in their support for Putin. Both British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to congratulate Putin on his win, instead calling him to discuss plans for cooperation during his next term.

The United States, following a similar pattern, offered lukewarm congratulations "to the Russian people" in a State Department release on Monday, but has been silent about whether Barack Obama has contacted Putin directly. Primarily, the country has focused on moving relations with Russia forward, despite concerns over the elections. The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton had a "get back to business" toned phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Yesterday, Barack Obama called for a repeal of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denies the "most favored nation" status to Russia in U.S. trade relations.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe released a communiqué on Monday that addressed only irregularities during the voting process, access to media and limited voter choice. "The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia," said Tonino Picula, the head of the delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

Jens Eschenbaecher, a spokesperson for the OSCE's Public Affairs Unit, told Russia Profile that the committee's results were not based on politics. "It's not our role to declare elections legitimate or illegitimate, we can only report what we see and then let political actors draw the necessary conclusions," said Eschenbaeher. Key concerns for the OSCE were limitations in media access for opposition candidates and irregularities after polling stations had closed.

Falsifications in the elections were becoming more sophisticated, said members of the League of Voters, arguing that the administration was being particularly careful in Moscow, where there were 86,000 registered vote monitors. Tatyana Lazareva, a comedian and member of the League of Voters, recalled a viral video with a young girl called "Sveta from Ivanovo," who had said that under Putin Russians had begun to "dress more better." "The administration has learned to falsify more better," said Lazareva.

"In terms of falsifications, they have changed form [from the December elections]... we've seen more tedious and less 'effective' ballot stuffing and carousels, and increased use of administrative resources," said Nikolai Petrov from the Moscow Carnegie Center. "It was especially noticeable in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, where the Kremlin had to solve an extremely difficult problem: mitigating the fall in national support for Putin while minimizing the number of scandals concerning falsifications."

Russian officials have lashed out at their critics chiefly by questioning their motives. This morning the deputy head of the Central Elections Committee, Leonid Iliev, said that the League had decided to "call the elections illegitimate even before the results were counted... and is now simply confirming its intentions." As for international detractors, among them U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul, the Russian Foreign Ministry has claimed McFaul is being hypocritical. "The police on Pushkin Square were many times more humane than what we witnessed with the dispersal of the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests and the tent cities in Europe," it wrote.

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia News - Russia

 

Both local Russian organizations and foreign states are trading barbs with the Russian government over Sunday's presidential elections. While protesters and organizations like the League of Voters have refused to recognize the recent elections as legitimate, the United States and Europe are walking a fine line between open criticism and recognizing a need to work with the next administration under Vladimir Putin. In turn, Russian officials have lashed out at their critics, saying criticism of the elections is politically motivated.

Kremlin and St. Basil's

At a jam-packed press-conference in central Moscow today, the League of Voters, an elections monitoring commission christened on the heels of the opposition movement, announced that it would not recognize Sunday's elections. "The League of Voters regretfully believes that a cruel insult against civil society of Russia was carried out on March 4," the group announced. "Concerning these massive violations, the league considers it impossible to recognize the results of the presidential elections in Russia 2012."

Dmitry Oreshkin, a liberal political analyst and a member of the leading committee of the organization, said that there had been irregularities at close to ten percent of all polling stations across Russia, according to Russian elections monitors. Discounting the ballots supporting Putin that were submitted at those polling stations, Putin would have won only 53 percent of the vote ­ ten percent less than he won on Sunday, but still not enough to force an election run-off.

Governments around the world have been facing a similar conundrum ­ how to respond to a vote that many believe had irregularities and falsifications to Vladimir Putin's advantage, but which might not have been crucial to securing a first-round win. So far the United States and Europe have not declared the elections "illegitimate," but have been reserved in their support for Putin. Both British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to congratulate Putin on his win, instead calling him to discuss plans for cooperation during his next term.

The United States, following a similar pattern, offered lukewarm congratulations "to the Russian people" in a State Department release on Monday, but has been silent about whether Barack Obama has contacted Putin directly. Primarily, the country has focused on moving relations with Russia forward, despite concerns over the elections. The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton had a "get back to business" toned phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Yesterday, Barack Obama called for a repeal of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denies the "most favored nation" status to Russia in U.S. trade relations.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe released a communiqué on Monday that addressed only irregularities during the voting process, access to media and limited voter choice. "The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia," said Tonino Picula, the head of the delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

Jens Eschenbaecher, a spokesperson for the OSCE's Public Affairs Unit, told Russia Profile that the committee's results were not based on politics. "It's not our role to declare elections legitimate or illegitimate, we can only report what we see and then let political actors draw the necessary conclusions," said Eschenbaeher. Key concerns for the OSCE were limitations in media access for opposition candidates and irregularities after polling stations had closed.

Falsifications in the elections were becoming more sophisticated, said members of the League of Voters, arguing that the administration was being particularly careful in Moscow, where there were 86,000 registered vote monitors. Tatyana Lazareva, a comedian and member of the League of Voters, recalled a viral video with a young girl called "Sveta from Ivanovo," who had said that under Putin Russians had begun to "dress more better." "The administration has learned to falsify more better," said Lazareva.

"In terms of falsifications, they have changed form [from the December elections]... we've seen more tedious and less 'effective' ballot stuffing and carousels, and increased use of administrative resources," said Nikolai Petrov from the Moscow Carnegie Center. "It was especially noticeable in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, where the Kremlin had to solve an extremely difficult problem: mitigating the fall in national support for Putin while minimizing the number of scandals concerning falsifications."

Russian officials have lashed out at their critics chiefly by questioning their motives. This morning the deputy head of the Central Elections Committee, Leonid Iliev, said that the League had decided to "call the elections illegitimate even before the results were counted... and is now simply confirming its intentions." As for international detractors, among them U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul, the Russian Foreign Ministry has claimed McFaul is being hypocritical. "The police on Pushkin Square were many times more humane than what we witnessed with the dispersal of the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests and the tent cities in Europe," it wrote.