MOSCOW, 28 June 2011 – OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver met with Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov 28 June in Moscow to discuss modalities for the observation of the Russian parliamentary elections to take place on 4 December.

The OSCE PA has observed every Russian parliamentary election since 1993. In 2007, when OSCE/ODIHR chose not to observe due to numerical limitations placed on their proposed observation mission, the OSCE PA and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejected the limitations and observed the elections.

Mr. Oliver received assurances from Chairman Churov that there would be no limitations on the number of international observers from the OSCE PA or ODIHR for the parliamentary elections in December.

Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President Alexander Kozlovskiy (Russian Federation) also participated in the meeting at the CEC where Chairman Churov showed the latest electronic voting machines that will be deployed for the first time this year in 6,000 voting locations.

When Mr. Oliver raised the question of the recent disqualification of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS), Mr. Churov said that was not a matter for the CEC but for the Ministry of Justice.

While in Moscow, Mr. Oliver also met with Vladimir Ryzhkov, a co-leader of PARNAS and former Deputy Speaker of the State Duma. Mr. Ryzhkov indicated his party had worked to organize across the nation and had fully complied with registration laws. The Ministry of Justice, however, refused the party’s registration last week based on arbitrary findings of minor, technical flaws in the registration papers.

Mr. Ryzhkov said the disqualification of the party would make the December elections a farce since there would be no real competition for the ruling United Russia Party. Mr. Oliver, accompanied by Senior Counsellor Semyon Dzakhaev, informed Mr. Ryzhkov that the Russian government was required to fulfill its international obligations under the 1990 Copenhagen Document related to elections.