Suppression of Opposition Groups in Russia

Foreign observers have said that Russia's parliamentary election won by President Vladimir Putin's party was "not fair".

The statement was made by a joint observer team from Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe.

With nearly 98% of ballots counted, Mr Putin's United Russia had 64.1% of Sunday's vote.

Opposition claims of fraud were rejected by the state electoral commission.

Sunday's election "was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections", the observers told a news conference in Moscow.

The statement said the polls "took place in an atmosphere which seriously limited political competition" and that "there was not a level political playing field".

"Frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favour of the ruling party and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism" had tainted the polls, the observers added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7124585.stm

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