russia manipulates information to justify excluding OSCE observers from the «elections»
russia is once again manipulating information to justify the absence of independent international monitoring of the September «elections» to the state duma.
russian foreign ministry spokeswoman maria zakharova proudly announced that russia would not invite the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to observe the «elections». She attributed the decision to the organisation’s alleged «double standards».
zakharova also claims that russia is allegedly fulfilling its obligations by inviting foreign representatives from «individual OSCE participating States and representatives of international organisations».
However, holding citizenship of an OSCE participating State does not make a person an official OSCE observer. Foreigners invited by moscow cannot replace a full-fledged independent mission of the organisation.
Instead, the kremlin is relying on «international observers» loyal to the russian authorities. Their task is to create the desired image for russian propaganda and give an appearance of legitimacy to the illegal «elections» that russia is also holding in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
