Russia will defend its rights to monitor the presidential elections in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2019) Russia will defend its rights to monitor the presidential elections in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Thursday.On Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he would instruct the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service to deny entry to Russian observers coming for the March 31 election. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill proposing to ban Russia's representatives from observing elections in Ukraine.
"We will continue to insist that the legitimate rights of sovereign states that have the right to send their representatives to observation missions are respected," Karasin told reporters.
Karasin called the intention of Poroshenko to ban entry into the country for observers from Russia an absurd.
"It sounds odious, absurd ... This is a violation of existing norms of international communication, when some external decisions impede the normal functioning of international organizations that are called upon to organize observation of all elections without any exceptions," he said.
Earlier in the day, Russian State Duma international affairs committee chairman Leonid Slutsky then promised that the Russian delegation would to raise the issue of non-admission of some international observers to the election in Ukraine at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.
Ukrainians will go to the polls to elect their president on March 31. Poroshenko is running in a crowded race, where he is challenged by over 30 other candidates from across the political spectrum.
