By Nicola Smith - 15th March 2004
The EU on Monday congratulated Russia’s President Putin on being re-elected for a second term shying from American criticisms of the fairness of the elections.
Following Sunday’s presidential elections which returned Putin to power with 71 per cent of the vote, European Commission chief Romano Prodi told the president he looked forward to “building an even stronger relationship between Russia and the EU.”
“With the support of such a large majority, you now have the possibility of completing the reform process in your country and enhance the process of grants, liberalisation and internationalisation of your country,” Prodi said in a personal message to Putin.
But commission spokesman Emma Udwin said that while the EU congratulated the Russian leader for his election victory, it would make an assessment on the fairness of the elections after a report by election observers.
Putin’s five rival candidates lodged complaints during the campaign of media bias in Putin’s favour and sporadic harassment by local officials.
An international observation team from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OECD) has already voiced criticisms about the way the campaign was conducted, pointing at media slants and flaws in vote counts.
Head of the mission, Julian Peel Yates, was reported by AP as saying the campaign and balloting “overall did not adequately reflect principles necessary for a positive democratic election process.”
Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe delegation, Rudolf Binding reported “significant problems” with counting in about a quarter of the polling places where observers were present.
Meanwhile in Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the US “was concerned about a level of authoritarianism creeping back in society.”
“We don’t hesitate to point out to President Putin that he should use the popularity that he has to broaden the political dialogue and not use his popularity to throttle political dialogue and openness in the society,” Powell told ABC TV.
Putin commented wryly that some “see the splinter in another’s eye and ignore the log in his own," pledging to draw the corresponding conclusions from the criticisms open up the political arena to divergent voices.
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