The representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) will not mention annexed Crimea in the report on the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the representative of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Jan Petersen said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
Since the OSCE operates based on a consensus of all OSCE member countries, Crimea remains beyond the organization`s monitoring range, according to Petersen.
According to him, about 300 short-term OSCE representatives will work on the territory of the Russian Federation on the day of voting.
As reported earlier, the OSCE declined to send its observers to the ”elections” to the State Duma in occupied Crimea.
It is reported the Russian-controlled authorities in annexed Crimea were forcing people to vote in the State Duma elections,threatening them with layoffs and wage cuts.
On September 18, on the day of elections in the Russian Federation, polling stations were expected to be set up at the Russian Embassy in Kyiv and the Consulate General of Russia in Odesa, Lviv, and Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry later said that the holding of elections to the State Duma at the Russian diplomatic missions in the territory of Ukraine would only be possible only after Russia refused from holding elections in the occupied territories.
