Russian observers to monitor US presidential elections

Russia intended to send observers to monitor the U.S. presidential elections due in November, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. The Russian government would send some members of its Parliament to the U.S. as part of the 57-member monitoring delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters during a news briefing. The presidential elections in the U.S. will be held on Nov 6. Russian monitors would also include diplomats from Russian Embassy in Washington and employees with Russian consulates general in several U.S. cities, Lukashevich said. The senior Russian diplomat accused the U.S. authorities of preventing a full-fledge international monitoring of the presidential elections, according to a statement published on the ministry's website. "Elections in the U.S. could hardly be called flawless from the point of generally-accepted standards and criteria," Lukashevich said. He pointed out at the "obsolete and non-direct character" of the U.S. presidential elections, as well as the lack of nation- wide system of accreditation for international observers.