OSCE Declines To Monitor Russian Elections

MOSCOW — The two main election monitoring bodies of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the continent's main human rights and democracy watchdog, refused to monitor Russia's presidential election next month, citing restrictions and an absence of competition.

"We normally do not monitor elections that are not competitive," the secretary general of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly, Spencer Oliver, said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen yesterday. "It appears not to be competitive."

The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, a Warsaw-based body that also monitors elections, said in an e-mail that the restrictions imposed wouldn't allow it to deploy an observation mission.

President Putin in December endorsed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the best man to succeed him in the election.

Mr. Medvedev's poll ratings have soared to more than 70% since then. The three other candidates running against him aren't expected to give him a serious challenge, polls show.