OSCE invited the Russian Federation and Ukraine to independently resolve the issue on elections

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that Russia and Ukraine should independently resolve disagreements over the non-admission of Russian citizens to polling stations in the diplomatic missions on the territory of Ukraine.

Press secretary of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Thomas Rymer, commenting on the non-admission of Russians to Russian diplomatic missions in Ukraine for voting in the presidential elections in Russia, said that international standards or agreements on securing voting in foreign elections are not available and this issue needs to be addressed to the two participating countries decide among themselves.

On March 18, Ukrainian police officers restricted access to Russian consulates, where polling stations are located for voting in the presidential elections in Russia. The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Maria Zakharova called the current situation illegal. Tatyana Moskalkova, the human rights ombudsman in the Russian Federation, said that Moscow had already appealed to the UN and the Council of Europe in connection with this, but there had been no response so far.

Member of the Central Election Commission Vasily Likhachev reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry and the CEC of the Russian Federation applied to the OSCE, which instructed the mission in Ukraine to collect documentary material about the non-admission of Russian citizens to elections and monitor the situation with Russian diplomatic missions.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov said that the agency decided not to let the Russians into the diplomatic missions in Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa and Lviv to participate in the presidential elections in Russia.

Reference: https://iz.ru/721349/2018-03-18/obse...ros-po-vyboram