November 17, 2007	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 06, 1428

WARSAW: Europe’s main elections watchdog, the OSCE, on Friday called off its observer mission to Russia’s forthcoming parliamentary polls citing a lack of cooperation, but Moscow shrugged off the charge.Russian authorities “remain unwilling to receive ... observers in a timely and cooperative manner and cooperate fully with them,” the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said.

In a statement the body said it would “be unable to deliver its mandate under these circumstances” in the Dec 2 polls and had written to Russian authorities to tell them it “regretted this conclusion”. The organisation said on Friday that despite the hurdles, it had tried to “deliver its mandate conscientiously and in good faith”.

It applied for its monitors’ visas on Nov 2, aiming to deploy an advance team of 20 people by Nov 7 and the remaining 50 by Nov 15.

“Despite repeated attempts ... entry visas have continuously been denied,” it said.

Russia accused the OSCE of being slow to submit the necessary paperwork.

The announcement was a sign of growing tensions between Russia and the West.

While Russia has become increasingly confident since President Vladimir Putin came to power eight years ago, the Western powers have pressed Moscow to be more democratic and cooperative on the international stage.

Also on Friday, Russian lawmakers voted to suspend compliance with a key Cold War-era arms control pact from next month.

Moscow’s reaction to the OSCE move was dismissive and did not address the criticism about lack of cooperation.—AFP