MOSCOW, March 3 (Itar-Tass) —— Public Chamber member Maxim Grigoriev has dismissed as “absolute lies” the rumor he was involved in creating some organization that would keep an eye on election observers.
“For all professional experts it is nakedly clear that observation of observers is silly and even a violation of the law. Observers at all polling stations have the right to perform any actions within the framework of the law to monitor the election process. Nobody has the right to tell them what they should do and what they should not do,” he told the media on Friday.
Grigoriev explained that the meeting he had been invited to on Friday was a joint conference of observers from all candidates for formulating general ethnical norms of monitoring the elections, for a briefing on the legal aspects of that process and for discussing ways of resisting falsifications.
Another Public Chamber member, Irina Pleshchyova, said that “no association has been created and it was just a discussion of the initiative.”
Earlier, some media said that in Moscow there had been established an organization of ‘observers for observers’, who would be present at the polling stations in the March 4 presidential election. The idea of such an organization was reportedly proposed by Public Chamber members Irina Pleshchyova, Maxim Grigoriev and State Duma member Ilya Kostunov (of the United Russia faction).