You're reading: Slutsky and Lebedev will be coordinators of State Duma observers to Crimea referendum

The chairman of the State Duma CIS Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky and his deputy Oleg Lebedev have been appointed to coordinate the work of Russian parliamentarians in charge of monitoring Crimea's referendum on March 16, the head of the chamber's directorate for public relations and media liaison, Yury Shuvalov, told Interfax on Friday.

“A group of members of the Russian Parliament will monitor the
referendum in Crimea. It [the group] includes MPs who have already
arrived in the autonomous republic,” Shuvalov said.

Slutsky said earlier that 20 State Duma members and eight Russian senators would visit all of Crimea’s polling stations.

However, a decision was announced on Friday that Russian
parliamentarians who have already arrived in the peninsula would monitor
the March 16 referendum, and an additional group of State Duma members
and senators would not be sent to Crimea.

The deputy chairperson of the State Duma CIS Affairs Committee and A
Just Russia Party MP, Tatyana Moskalkova, for her part, told Interfax
that this trip had been cancelled because the number of Russian
parliamentarians already present in Crimea was enough to fulfill the
observation mission.

In the referendum, Crimean citizens will have to decide on whether
Crimea should become part of Russia or remain as an autonomous republic
within Ukraine.