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West seeks to influence Russian polls through OSCE, Council of Europe observers — Lavrov

Russia’s top diplomat recalled that the only commitment of an OSCE member-state is to invite international observers to nationwide elections, while there are no specific requirements on their number and a particular timeframe of invitation

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The West will attempt to influence the elections in Russia through observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"They will try to exert direct influence through observers at the elections from the OSCE and the Council of Europe," Lavrov told a webinar on Russia’s foreign policy.

Russia’s Central Election Commission is in contact with the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the issue of monitoring the elections, Lavrov noted.

Russia’s top diplomat recalled that the only commitment of an OSCE member-state is to invite international observers to nationwide elections, while there are no specific requirements on their number and a particular timeframe of invitation.

"Moreover, there is even no information whether these should be observers of the OSCE or ODIHR. It’s just the commitment to invite international observers. And we did this and will do this, I assure you," Lavrov stressed.

"And I’m convinced that if these ODIHR leaders want (definitely such an order has been already received) so as to say ‘add some pepper’ to all these discussions, they could pick faults in anything," he said.

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OSCE Sergey Lavrov Russian Foreign Ministry Council of Europe

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