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Russia has opened a diplomatic campaign to curtail the activities of election observers in the states of the former Soviet Union, proposing to cut the size of the missions sharply and to prohibit the publication of their reports immediately after an election.
The proposals, circulated confidentially last month by Russia at the headquarters in Vienna of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, would also forbid observers to make any public statements about a government’s electoral conduct in the days after citizens voted.
Taken together, the proposals would severely undermine the activities of the organization’s election-monitoring arm before two important elections in Russia: the parliamentary election planned for Dec. 2 and presidential elections next spring.