OSCE will not send observers to Russian elections in Crimea
The Ukrainian Ambassador to the OSCE, Ihor Prokopchuk, stated in an interview with journalists in Kiev that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will not send observers to Russian parliamentary elections that will take place in the Crimea, as reported by a correspondent of Ukrayinska Pravda. According to ODIHR, those elections, which are held in the territory of the Russian Federation, don’t concern the Crimea.
“Countries can invite the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to the elections but only within its territory. The position of ODIHR is that they will not participate in the monitoring of elections that are held in the territory of the Crimea,” the diplomat said. The Ambassador avoided predicting how this will affect the recognition of the powers of the Russian Parliament as a whole.
At the same time, Prokopchuk recalled that OSCE institutions refused to recognize the powers of the MP for the annexed territory in a similar situation with the Crimean representative in the Federation Council of Russia.
“Last February, the decision on the non-recognition of the powers of a person, who is a representative of the occupied territory, was made unanimously after the inclusion of this person in the delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. In addition, the representative of the occupied territory was denied an Austrian entry visa,” Igor Prokopchuk noted.