MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Contrary to the Kiev government’s statements, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) favored including Russian monitors into its observer mission for the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
She said during the ’60 minutes’ TV show on the Rossiya-1 channel on Tuesday evening that when Kiev announced it would bar Russian observers, OSCE assured Russia that it would not stand any violation of the organization’s rules.
"Then, we received a signal from the OSCE that the rules must be respected, and that the observers should be picked up," she said.
Ukraine’s Central Election Commission earlier refused to register 24 Russian OSCE/ODIHR members as short-term observers. Prior to that, the commission denied registration to two long-term observers from Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that refusal to register OSCE-endorsed observers who have Russian citizenship was illegitimate.
According to Zakharova, the OSCE "remains in the state of shock" following a decision by Ukraine’s election authority.
"This state of shock is being made worse by reports that journalists are now being denied access as well, not only Russian journalists, but also Italian ones. Prior to that, there were Austrian journalists, too. The process is gaining momentum," the spokeswoman said.
Shortly after, Ukraine’s incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko said in an ICTV channel broadcast that his decision to bar Russian observers received support from the country’s "international partners," but did not disclose who those states, individuals or entities were.
"The only people, who were denied access to the elections, were observers from Russia. And I’m convinced that this decision of mine was an absolutely right thing to do," he said. "The people of Ukraine support me in that regard."
"And when someone tried to put pressure on us, I took an open stance and said: we will not let Russian observers to our polls," Poroshenko added.
A record number of candidates - 39 people - will take part in Ukraine’s presidential election set for March 31, 2019. According to latest opinion polls, comedian Vladimir Zelensky (24.9%) leads the race, followed by the head of the Batkivshchina (or Fatherland) party Yulia Timoshenko (18.8%) and trailing behind her is incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko (17.4%).