Election Observation

Russia's Central Elections Commission (CEC) said Moscow had invited 300-400 foreign observers, including just 70 from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

The figure was three times less than the total number of foreign observers invited to previous parliamentary elections and more than five times lower for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers.

Critics have warned that the Kremlin will try and stage-manage the vote to boost the two-thirds parliamentary majority held by United Russia, whose electoral list is headed by President Vladimir Putin.

A spokeswoman for ODIHR in Warsaw, Urdur Gunnarsdottir, said Russian restrictions could "seriously limit" election monitoring.

Washington critical

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the US administration was "concerned and disappointed" by Russia's limited invitation to international observers.

"Any conditions that are placed on them are a concern to us and we will certainly be bringing this up with the Russians," she said.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was not imposing any unwarranted restrictions and was fully abiding by its obligations as a member of the OSCE.

Analysts said the reduction in the number of foreign election observers was a clear message to the West not to try and teach Russia any lessons in democracy.

"It is part of a broader statement: Russia will not allow anyone to preach to it in terms of its internal political situation," said Maria Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research institution.

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Politics, said the changes would make little difference because the political system was already weighted in favor of the ruling United Russia party.

"Over the past two years our political system has been transformed to enable the success of one party -- this is beyond the mandate of the observers," Lukyanov said.

In addition to the ODIHR observers, Russia has sent invitations to a Moscow-friendly grouping of former Soviet republics, and to representatives from countries including Britain, France, Germany, Jordan and Poland.

Authoritative body

ODIHR is the election monitoring arm of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and is considered the most authoritative election body in eastern Europe.

In Russia's last parliamentary election in 2003, about 1,200 monitors, including 399 from ODIHR, fanned out across Russia. Their report found the elections "failed to meet many ... commitments for democratic elections."

The spat over election observers comes as Moscow steps up a long-running diplomatic offensive against the OSCE, which it accuses of bias against Russian policies.

Russia last week said that it wanted to reduce the scope of OSCE observer missions, leading to accusations that the Kremlin is afraid of outside scrutiny in what critics say is a rigged election process.

One aspect under attack, diplomatic sources said, is the OSCE's tradition of issuing a preliminary report the day after elections -- a high profile occasion when journalists are given the organization's broad-brush findings.

Backing Russia's bid to change OSCE monitoring work are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, all countries that have been criticized over recent elections.