MOSCOW, August 6./TASS/. The OSCE decision not to send observers to monitor the State Duma election in Russia was aimed at sparking a scandal around the election campaign and calling into question the legitimacy of the Russian elections, head of the Ad Hoc Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Interference in the Domestic Affairs of the Russian Federation Council Andrei Klimov said on Friday.

"In all appearances, the aim of this decision was to spark a contrived row around the current election in order to then bring into question its legitimacy," Klimov told a session of the commission.

The senator reiterated that the US law on countering America’s adversaries approved in relation to Russia back in 2017, "names the OSCE among the structures that are instructed to contain Russia." "The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is considered by US law as one of the proponents of the law on deterring America’s adversary - the Russian Federation. No one except for the Russian Federation was outraged by this strange law of the US. Isn’t this the reason behind the allegedly unexpected decision of the OSCE ODIHR not to send its observers to Russia?" Klimov asked.

If somebody abroad "is not willing to avail themselves of a generous invitation from the Russian side to take part in international monitoring, the choice is theirs," he added. "But this choice does not give the right to smear Russia and its election on these grounds," the senator stressed.

The members of the commission know perfectly well that not everybody abroad needs the objective assessment of the Russian elections. "We have repeatedly stated that Washington made the decision back in spring to discredit the upcoming Duma election at any cost," he reiterated.

OSCE’s decision

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the ODIHR said in a statement on Wednesday that it "will not be able to send observers to the upcoming elections to the Duma due to limitations imposed by Russian Federation authorities on the election observation." "The ability to independently determine the number of observers necessary for us to observe effectively and credibly is essential to all international observation," the statement quoted ODIHR Director Matteo Mecacci as saying.

The 8th State Duma elections are scheduled for September 19. The voting will stretch over three days: September 17, 18, and 19. Simultaneously, there will be direct elections for the heads of nine Russian regions (in three others, top executive officials will be elected by local legislatures) and 39 regional parliaments.