You're reading: Duma deputies might participate in monitoring elections to Ukrainian Rada

Moscow - Russian State Duma deputies might take part in monitoring elections to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, including as part of international missions, if they receive invitations and security guarantees from Kyiv, Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin said.

“Certainly, we are analyzing the situation in Ukraine in terms of the possibility of our participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections,” Naryshkin said in an interview to Russian news agencies on Saturday, Sep. 13.

The elections to the Verkhovna Rada are scheduled for Sep. 26.

The final decision will depend in large part on whether the Ukrainian authorities can ensure safe and unimpeded work of Duma monitors, Naryshkin said. “I expect that there will be an invitation from the [Ukrainian] authorities, I don’t rule out that [an invitation would be] addressed to the State Duma [or] integration associations to which Ukraine belongs,” Naryshkin said when asked whether Kyiv expects monitors from Russia at these elections.