January 29, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 19, 1429

MOSCOW, Jan 28: Russia said on Monday it had halved the number of foreign observers invited to presidential elections in March and suggested some monitors in the past had been fundamentally hostile to Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin, seeking to extend his influence by ensuring a loyal ally succeeds him, has accused European observers in previous polls of being biased.

“We are inviting around 400 foreign observers,” Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov told a news conference after signing a thick pack of invitations. The commission says 800 observers monitored the 2004 presidential vote.

Europe’s election watchdog ODIHR said it would have liked the invitation earlier to send an assessment mission before the polls. At this point it was not possible to conduct the entire observer process it would have liked.

Asked if such numbers of observers would be enough to monitor an election in a country stretching from the Pacific coast to the Baltic, Churov said those invited were roughly proportionate to those who monitored Poland’s recent elections.

“If you invite a guest, you invite someone you want to see, not just someone curious to see your house, right?” he added.

Last year ODIHR refused to monitor Russia’s December parliamentary election after the authorities cut the number of foreign observers to just over 330 from 1,200 in the previous election and delayed issuing visas to them. Putin, popular for bringing stability and economic recovery after the chaos of the 1990s, is forbidden by the constitution from running for a third term at the March 2 election.—Reuters