"2007 Russian elections did not take place in an impartial atmosphere". It was the conclusion made by the 70 observers sent by the Council of Europe and OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), all of them members of parliament coming from 28 countries: the delegation was led by Luc van den Brande, from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and Göran Lennmarker, exponent of the OSCE Assembly. "The voting had been organized well said the people in charge of the mission today, in Strasbourg. However, the counting of votes took place with an atmosphere which seriously limited political competition, in which the abuses of administrative resources were frequent, and the media coverage was mainly in favour of the party in power". In particular, the observers criticized the following points: "the fusion of the State with a political party is an abuse of power, and a clear violation of international duties and standards"; "the mass media proved to be largely in favour of President Putin and the party in power, United Russia"; "because of the new electoral regulation, developing and competing was extremely difficult for new parties and for minor parties". Finally, "several reports witnessed opposition parties were victims of harassment". (To be continued)
