Strasbourg, 14/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 December, the European Parliament called for new “free and fair elections”. It expressed “deep concern” about the preliminary reports of fraud and intimidation in the Russian elections held on 4 December, the procedural violations, lack of media impartiality, harassment of independent monitors and lack of separation between party (the United Russia Party) and state. In their joint resolution on the EU-Russia summit, MEPs call on the Russian authorities to reconvene the election in the zones where fraud was committed and call for an immediate and complete investigation into allegations of fraud. They also call for those responsible for any irregularities to be punished.
MEPs welcome the demonstrations in Russia as “an expression of the will of the Russian people for more democracy” and condemn the crackdown by the police on peaceful demonstrations. They also call for the immediate and unconditional release of the peaceful demonstrators arrested.
The European Parliament is calling on the president of the European Council, his counterpart at the Commission and the EU high representative to raise the question of the elections of 4 December at the EU-Russia summit on 15 December in Brussels (see other article).
On the day preceding the debate, Werner Schulz (Greens/EFA) explained that a partnership with Russia is possible if the latter is prepared to accept “a democratic pact and the rule of law”. Tunne Kelam (EPP) stressed that the EU had to “send the Russians a message that we take democracy seriously”. Bastiaan Belder (EFD) stated that “the demonstrators had denounced a democratic system that was sick and it is important that we associate ourselves with this criticism made by the Russians and draw the lessons for next March (during the presidential elections).”
His colleague, Hannes Swoboda (S&D), explained that the EP wanted to hold a hearing in January with members of the political parties and civil society, to discuss these elections. Kristiina Ojuland (ALDE) called on Russia to respect the obligations incumbent on it as a member of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE).
Earlier in the day, the former prime minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Kassianov (2000-2004), whose party, Parnas, did not have the right to participate in the elections, called on European leaders to provide a strong response on the subject of the elections, which were marred by a number of irregularities. During a press conference organised by the ALDE Group in Strasbourg, he explained that “we need European leaders to defend their values, values that govern their own elections… we need a strong response from European leaders.” (CG/transl.fl)