The Human Rights branch of the OSCE could refuse to monitor Russia’s upcoming presidential elections over a disagreement over when monitoring can start. After talks in Moscow, Russia agreed to let more observers in, starting from now.
Moscow also agreed to let in another group a week earlier than previously planned. But these latest concessions made by Moscow have not swayed the watchdog's position and talks are set to continue. RT political commentator Peter Lavelle has not ruled out the possibility of the OSCE boycotting the election. He says despite all the good work it does all over the world, the organisation shows bias in election monitoring: “In Russia's view the OSCE is lecturing it and telling it how it should be running its elections. Russians looking at the OSCE in the past – in Georgia and Ukraine – are very dubious about it. They say the OSCE is a biased organisation at times. I’ve met election observers and they were openly biased in their opinions, especially in Georgia and Ukraine”.