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Council of Europe experts to analyze Russian electoral laws

The experts are expected to draw the main conclusions by PACE’s session that will be held in March 2012 in Venice

STRASBOURG, December 19 (Itar-Tass) — European Commission for Democracy through Law, which is also known as the Venice Commission, plans analyzing Russian electoral legislation from the angle of conformity to the European norms.

A source at the European Commission’s secretariat said that the case in hand, in part, concerns Russia’s federal laws on political parties and elections to the State Duma.

The source said that the Venice Commission has received a query on the issue from a monitoring commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and now the experts representing Europe’s oldest political organization are faced with a task that is momentous both in what concerns the volumes of work to be done and the deadlines.

The experts are expected to draw the main conclusions by PACE’s session that will be held in March 2012 in Venice.

These conclusions will then be appended with a PACE report on commitment to the obligations, which Russia undersigned in the process of joining the Council of Europe.

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