MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has been receiving around ten messages every day from Russians living abroad, who are concerned about their chances to participate in the upcoming presidential election, CEC member Vasily Likhachev said at a meeting of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee on Foreign Affairs. According to him, Russian communities in Ukraine and the United States are voicing particular concerns.

"The Russian legislation does not offer answers to many questions that have been rising," Likhachev added.

He also said that the CEC was concerned over ways to effectively organize the voting process abroad. "The anti-Russian hysteria there has been taking new forms. Every day we receive up to ten letters from our citizens who live abroad and have the right to vote, which concern voting procedures," the CEC member said.

Likhachev pointed out that "the Russian community [in the United States] has been alarmed since the illegal seizure of the Russian property in San Francisco and New York." Besides, "many questions are starting to come from Ukraine," he noted.

CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova earlier told reporters that the commission was not yet clear about how to provide Russians living in Ukraine with a chance to participate in the voting.

The presidential election in Russia is scheduled to be held on March 18.