MOSCOW — The head of the only major Western vote-monitoring group that sent a team to Russia to observe Sunday’s presidential election severely criticized the process Monday, which drew a furious rebuttal from the country’s Central Election Commission.
Officials in Washington and Western European capitals, meanwhile, expressed muted disappointment with the way the vote was conducted, but they hoped that the new presidency would bring a shift in ideas and better relations with their governments.
“We think there is not freedom in this election,” said Andreas Gross, after Dmitry Medvedev, departing President Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, scored an officially tabulated win of more than 70 percent of the vote. Gross, heading a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe — the continent’s leading human-rights organization — cited media bias and failure to register some candidates, among other shortcomings. In a statement, the group said the result reflected the “will of the electorate,” but its “democratic potential was unfortunately not tapped.”
Vladimir Churov, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, ridiculed the criticism. “What should I do? Should I make CEC members work naked?” he said in televised remarks. “I am unaware of a document which would outline a procedure for the use of democratic potential.”
His commission reported a record turnout of 69.7 percent among Russia’s 109 million voters.
An independent Russian monitoring group echoed the European criticism and argued that Medvedev didn’t need overwhelming media coverage and the use of state resources, including ballot-stuffing and the pressuring of state workers, to ensure victory.
“Medvedev could have calmly and honestly won this election, . . . albeit with a more modest result,” said Alexander Kynev of the Russian group Golos.
Europe’s leading election watchdog group, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, didn’t send observers, citing severe restrictions that the Russian authorities planned to place on its work.
Riot police detained dozens of opposition activists protesting the election Monday and calling Medvedev’s overwhelming victory a “farce.”
The rally was banned by the Moscow authorities.
Among those detained were Nikita Belykh, leader of the small Union of Right Forces party, and Lev Ponomaryov, a well-known human-rights activist.
Medvedev, 42, will assume the presidency on May 7. At a government meeting Monday in the Kremlin, Putin said the two would begin working immediately on the handover.
U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey noted Monday that American officials have previously expressed concerns about Russia’s democratic direction.
“I don’t think those concerns were in any way changed by these elections,” Casey said. “We’ll have to see what new politics or ideas he (Medvedev) brings to office.”
