Russia offered on Tuesday to ease restrictions on Europe's main election watchdog by giving its monitors a week longer to monitor the March 2 presidential poll.
Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had told Moscow they needed to be in Russia three weeks before election day to observe the campaign's fairness, and had threatened to cancel their visit.
But Russia, who initially told the OSCE its officials could arrive just three days before the vote, said on Tuesday a February 20 arrival would allow sufficient time to observe an election that Russian President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor is expected to win easily.
"This makes for 10 days and we think that is a normal period for them to familiarise themselves with the situation, and to carry out their observations on the day of the vote and during the count," Elena Dubrovina, a member of Russia's Central Election Committee, told Reuters.
The G-8 member country also increased the number of invited monitors from the OSCE's election observation body, ODIHR, to 75 from 70. An ODIHR spokesman declined to comment on the Russian proposal. ODIHR pulled out of monitoring Russia's December 2 parliamentary election because it said restrictions prevented it from doing its job properly.
Russia accused the United States of putting pressure on the Warsaw-based organisation to pull out of the December 2 election and has said ODIHR is trying to sabotage monitoring plans for the presidential vote. Putin is stepping aside after eight years in power and has hand-picked First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor.
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