Putin Accuses US Of Meddling In Russian Elections

J.J. Jackson* | November 28, 2007

I am coming to the realization that Pootie-Poo is about as stable and Hugo Chavez on a good day:

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin Monday accused the United States of trying to taint the legitimacy of upcoming Russian parliamentary elections by pressing a group of prominent independent election observers to abandon their attempts to monitor the campaign.

Putin contended that the election monitors, who are deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, had canceled their plans to monitor the parliamentary balloting because of pressure from the State Department in Washington.

Putin’s statements in recent weeks have taken on an increasingly nationalistic tone as he has sought to muster support for his party in the balloting on Sunday. Speaking to reporters Monday in St. Petersburg, he once again criticized what he suggested was foreign meddling in Russia’s affairs.

“According to information we have, it was again done at the recommendation of the U.S. State Department and we will take this into account in our inter-state relations with this country,” he said. “Their goal is the delegitimization of the elections. But they will not achieve even this goal.”

But, it appears that his paranoia clouds the truth as often happens with people that have something to hide.

Spokeswoman for the election observers Monday called Putin’s assertion “nonsense.” The United States Embassy in Moscow would not immediately comment.The election-monitoring arm of the OSCE, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or ODIHR, announced on Nov. 16 that it was canceling its mission to Russia, saying that restrictions imposed by the Russian government had made it impossible for it to carry out its work. The State Department and European diplomats supported the decision.
Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokeswoman for the monitoring arm, said Putin was misinformed about the reasons for the group’s withdrawal.

“This was a decision that was simply based on the fact that we were not receiving any visas and time had run out,” she said.

Oops. So now it appears that the truth is that the reason the monitors are not going to be there are because they can’t get their visas from the Russian government. Wonder if Pootie-poo had a hand in that?

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