MOSCOW: European election observers issued a harsh critique of the Russian presidential election on Monday, saying that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's victory was preordained and unfair because of overwhelming bias in the television media and the use of government money and resources in support of his campaign.
Putin, who has already served eight years as president and four years as PM, won a new six-year term on Sunday with an official tally of 63.75% of the vote. He has already suggested that he might run again in 2018, potentially extending his tenure as Russia's pre-eminent leader to 24 years, on a par with Brezhnev and Stalin.
The observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said that the election was heavily tilted in Putin's favour, and that incidents of voter fraud and other irregularities were not as significant as the overall framework of the campaign, which they said gave opposition candidates little chance.
"Conditions were clearly skewed in Putin's favour" while the vote count was "assessed negatively in almost one-third of polling stations," they said.
Their observation came as a teary-eyed Putin told tens of thousands of his supporters , "I promised you we would win, and we won... We have won in an open and honest battle. We proved that no-one can force anything on us."
Hours later, thousands gathered for a massive rally in Moscow to challenge Putin's victory, chanting 'Shame!' and 'Russia without Putin!'" "The campaign has been unfair, cowardly and treacherous," said opposition leader Grigory Yavlinsky , denied registration for the race on a technicality.
Sergei Udaltsov, an organizer , urged protesters to stay on Moscow's iconic Pushkin Square until Putin steps down. "If it was a free election, why have they flooded the city of troops?" Udaltsov shouted to the crowd, which responded with cries: "They fear us!"
Khodorkovsky case will be reviewed
President Dmitry Medvedev held out an olive branch to opposition protesters, telling Russia's prosecutor general to study the legality of 32 criminal cases, including the jailing of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Medvedev also told the justice minister to explain why Russia had refused to register the liberal opposition movement PARNAS.
