MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry has reached out to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), inviting their representatives to observe the Russian presidential election, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Gennady Askaldovich said.

"The Foreign Ministry is engaged in inviting observers through the CIS Executive Committee and the SCO Secretariat. We have sent requests to these organizations inviting up to 100 and 25 observers respectively from the above agencies," Askaldovich said at a meeting at the Russian Central Election Commission focused on preparations for the presidential election in March 2024.

According to him, the headquarters of the CIS observer mission begins its work in Moscow on Monday. According to the ambassador-at-large, the Russian parliament plans to invite hundreds of individual observers from friendly countries.

The Federation Council (upper house of parliament) formally designated March 17, 2024, as the date of Russia’s presidential election. The Central Election Commission decided that the vote would take place over three days, on March 15-17, 2024, making it the first-ever three-day presidential election in Russian history.