Translated material
Notes of protest
The Central Election Commission is fighting with international observers for the prestige of Russia
The lack of intrigue in the substantive part of the presidential campaign in Russia is more than made up for by protracted negotiations between the Central Election Commission and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The parties cannot come to an agreement on the format of the bureau's observation mission for the upcoming elections on March 2. Yesterday, the Central Election Commission unexpectedly made serious concessions, but even after this, the question of the timing of monitoring the elections remained open by the time the issue was signed for publication.This morning, two days have passed since the start of the negotiation process. Apparently, the chance to reach a compromise is not completely lost. Otherwise, everything would have ended much faster, as in the parliamentary campaign - as you know, the ODIHR boycotted the elections on December 2, 2007, without sending its representatives to them. Apparently, this time the head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, has been tasked with preventing such a scandal or, in any case, minimizing its consequences for the Russian side.
Let us recall how events developed. On January 28, Mr. Churov publicly, in the presence of journalists, signed invitations for 350 international observers, including the 70-member ODIHR mission. According to the CEC, it was assumed that the experts would arrive in Russia on February 27-28, that is, two to three days before the vote. On January 29, bureau director Christian Strohal, in a letter diplomatic in form but quite harsh in content, stated that the ODIHR needed to begin monitoring this week. By the end of it, Mr. Strohal would like to send the first group of 20 experts to Moscow, and after another week they would be joined by the remaining 50 people. Otherwise, the bureau actually threatened another boycott of the Russian elections.
The Central Election Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reacted negatively to this statement, in fact accusing the bureau of political bias and an attack on Russian sovereignty. Nevertheless, on Monday, February 4, in the morning, Mr. Churov began negotiations with the head of the ODIHR elections department, Gerald Mitchell, and the adviser to the bureau for elections in Russia, Mats Lindberg, who had arrived in Moscow. The first results of this behind-closed-doors process became known only yesterday afternoon.
The Central Election Commission, which at first did not want to make any concessions, suddenly agreed yesterday to accept the first technical employees of the bureau in Moscow. The advance group of observers was asked to begin work on February 8, and the main team of the mission on the 20th. At the same time, the CEC allowed the Europeans to expand the number of observers by another five mandates, although the ODIHR did not ask for an increase in their number at all.
After some deliberation, bureau representatives, however, repeated their original demands. “We insist that our observation mission be allowed into Russia no later than next week, even if it is the 15th,” said organization spokesman Curtis Baden.
It is unlikely that the extra five days of monitoring are such a fundamental issue for both sides; it’s just that both the CEC and the ODIHR are striving, first and foremost, to save face. The outcome of this diplomatic duel will be assessed not only by the result, but also by the number of concessions that the negotiators will make. It is no coincidence that the parties, while refusing to comment, nevertheless inform journalists with reverent precision about their every step. Thus, yesterday’s statement of the Central Election Commission about the proposed compromise was disseminated by the commission’s press service with outstanding speed. Mr. Baden, in turn, around noon filled the news agencies’ feeds with “lightning bolts”, reporting that representatives of the bureau were allegedly stopping consultations and leaving Moscow. A few hours later, he reported about a traffic jam that Europeans got into while heading to the Central Election Commission with another letter. All these small details helped keep the enemy in suspense and maintain intrigue.
Additional difficulties “are due to the fact that the ODIHR is represented by people who do not make decisions,” Igor Borisov, who oversees the international department at the CEC, said yesterday. Mr Mitchell and Mr Lindbergh returned to Warsaw last night for consultations with their management. Presumably, Vladimir Churov also has someone with whom to discuss further tactics in relation to persistent observers: few doubt that the decision on the format of the ODIHR mission is not made by the Central Election Commission. This is indirectly evidenced by such a funny detail: just at the time when the Tsik press secretaries were reporting new steps towards the Europeans, commission member Valery Kryukov, at a briefing at the Rosbalt agency, was indignant at the fact that “observers are being sent to us as a country where there is no electoral system at all.” Obviously, not even the representatives themselves know everything about the position of the federal center on this issue.
In this situation, the outcome of the negotiations depends on what is more important for the Russian authorities: to demonstrate integrity and not allow European officials to impose their conditions on Moscow or to still allow them to vote, thereby providing the future president with greater legitimacy in the eyes of the West.