The presidential elections in Ukraine are a campaign amid chaos and there is no useful result that can be seen by Moscow.
“This can not be called a campaign, this is an attempt to hold
elections amid chaos and continuing a domestic conflict. We do not see
evident useful results in holding the elections,” Russia’s Permanent
Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Andrei Kelin said in an interview with Interfax.
“Elections should be held amid the conditions, when the political
process is complete, when it is clear who the people want to see as
their leader and for what sake. This situation lacks this. Voices are
heard in Donetsk saying that they will not participate in the elections
at all,” Kelin said.
When asked whether Russia will include its representative in the OSCE
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) mission,
Kelin said that “the ODIHR deals firstly with monitoring the election
process – how it proceeds, what access candidates have to mass media
outlets, how rights campaigns are conducted, how much preparations for
voting comply with laws and international recommendations.”
“What can be said in the situation when two Russian-speaking
candidates Mykhailo Dobkin and Oleh Tsariov have been attacked recently,
and this campaign continues and we do not actually notice that they
have access to mass media outlets,” Kelin said.
