Former Putin Advisor Slams Russian Election as Fraud
Dec 1, 2007 07:00 Africa/Lagos Former Putin Advisor Slams Russian Election as Fraud WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Andrei Illarionov, Cato Institute Senior Fellow and former advisor to Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, comments on the upcoming Russian poll: "The Russian parliamentary election that is scheduled on December 2, 2007 became illegal and unlawful even before its official start. It meets none of the criteria of a free, fair, and democratic election. In effect it is not even an election. Over the last several years the Russian authorities have undertaken many changes in the electoral law that made electoral rules effectively undemocratic and participation in the election for a real political opposition party next to impossible. But even these undemocratic laws and rules have been severely violated over last several months. The number and severity of violations of the electoral laws and of world-wide accepted electoral practices exceeds all imagina...