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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE

Russia agrees with OSCE that ‘misuse of state resources’ was evident in Ukraine’s election

The runoff is scheduled for April 21

© AP Photo/Mykola Tys

ST. PETERSBURG, April 4./TASS/. Moscow agrees with a provision in the report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) about the abuse of administrative resources during the Ukrainian presidential election, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Thursday.

"As for the factual data, the OSCE ODIHR wrote it correctly: ‘the misuse of state resources undermined the credibility of the process.’ Everything there was stated correctly, all these shortcomings (violations during the election, including vote-buying - TASS) did take place, this can be seen with the naked eye," Grushko said.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE

In response to a question on any prospects for monitoring the runoff in Ukraine, Grushko said: "What prospects are you talking about, if the Ukrainian authorities say that Russian observers won’t be allowed".

Despite the reports’ objectivity claims, it had political overtones, the Russian diplomat noted.

"This is not news. We know about this flaw in the ODIHR’s activity, there is a large field of possiblities that political expediency would determine the content of the report instead of the results of the monitoring," he noted.

"Flagrant violations of fundamental commitments in the sphere of election monitoring were seen, in particular, the non-admission of Russian observers, and denying Ukrainian nationals who reside in other countries their fundamental right to vote," Grushko added.

Ukraine held the first round of the presidential election on Sunday. The runoff is scheduled for April 21.

Russian observers did not monitor the election. 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-time observers from Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the refusal to register OSCE-endorsed observers who have Russian citizenship as illegitimate.

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