Russian federal officials refuse to accredit thousands of independent election observers

Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to accredit 4,500 election monitors from Alexey Navalny’s media organization Leviathan, citing a court ruling that stripped Navalny’s group of its formal registration.

Officials also refused to accredit 850 observers from the independent monitoring organization “Golos.” The group’s co-chairman says Golos will try to gain accreditation by working with one of the presidential candidates.