16/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday (in Kazakhstan where he was on a visit) Chris Patten the European Commissioner for external relations criticised the Russian presidential election which on Sunday confirmed the unsurprising victory of president Vladimir Putin. Patten made specific criticism of the unequal treatment of the candidates in the media. In a press statement the international OSCE election observers' mission led by Julian Peel Yates made the same observation: that the election had not presented all the characteristic of a genuinely democratic election. It denounced the absence of a secret ballot conditions and especially the discrimination shown to candidates by the media, particularly on the television.