Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in Donetsk, Sept. 2011.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern Tuesday over Russia’s parliamentary election that she said was rigged.
Speaking at ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vilnius, Lithuania, Clinton criticized Russia’s recent State Duma elections and urged the country to consider the OSCE’s forthcoming recommendations.
From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
“As we have seen in many places and most recently in the Duma elections in Russia, elections that are neither free nor fair [undermine the people's confidence],” she said. “We have serious concerns about the conduct of those elections. Independent political parties such as Parnas were denied the right to register and the preliminary report by the OSCE cites election-day attempts to stuff ballot boxes, manipulate voter lists, and other troubling practices.”
Clinton also named former Soviet republics Belarus and Ukraine as countries that have recently shown signs of backsliding.
From the RFE/RL story:
“We see setbacks for democratic institutions, the rule of law, and electoral processes,” she said. “We witnessed prosecutions such as that of Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine, which raised serious questions about political motivations.”
A year ago, the Belarusian government arrested opposition leaders and their supporters in Minsk after protests broke out over the presidential election result that favored the incumbent, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Last October, in a move many believe to have been politically motivated on the part of current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, ex-Premier Yulia Tymoshenko was convicted of exceeding her powers while in public office and sentenced to seven years in prison.