- (AFP) -- The White House said it shares the concerns
of Europe's top rights and democracy body about the fairness of weekend
parliamentary elections in Russia, and urged lawmakers there to pursue
a reform agenda.
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- "We share those concerns, a fact which underlines
the importance of Russian legislators dedicating themselves to pushing
through the political and economic reform agenda," spokesman Scott
McClellan told reporters Monday.
-
- He urged Russia to "press ahead with both political
and economic reform, building those institutions of democracy that are
important to free and democratic states, such as a free press, political
parties, respect for rule of law, to name a few."
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- Russian President Vladimir Putin's party and its allies
triumphed in the election, which crushed the communists and shut liberal
parties out of the chamber for the first time in the post-Soviet era.
-
- But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), which deployed 500 election monitors together with the Council
of Europe, said earlier that the vote been had "free, but certainly
not fair."
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- International observers accused the authorities of using
state-controlled media and administrative resources to support the pro-Kremlin
United Russia party.
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- The leading opposition Communist Party suffered devastating
losses in Sunday's election to the State Duma, or lower house of parliament,
and its leader refused to accept the results, accusing the Kremlin of vote-rigging.
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- With ballots nearly all counted, parties aligned with
Putin were close to snatching a two-thirds majority in the legislature
that would allow the Kremlin chief to change the constitution and perhaps
extend his term in office for many more years to come.
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