CIS OBSERVERS HOPE THEIR ASSESSMENTS OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA TO COINCIDE WITH OSCE DATA

MOSCOW, March 15, 2004. (RIA Novosti) - The observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at the Sunday presidential elections in Russia hope that their assessments will coincide, on the whole, with the assessments of the OSCE observers, CIS Executive Secretary Yury Yarov disclosed this on Monday. In his opinion, differences may be only insignificant.

At the news conference in Moscow, the head of the group of observers from the CIS expressed the hope that their colleagues from the OSCE would take into consideration the cultural and historical peculiarities of the country in which they work.

"The latest elections in Georgia have shown that our assessments did not differ substantially from the assessments of the observers from international organisations. This testifies to the fact that international observers are beginning to understand that it is very important to take into consideration the path which our states have covered in a comparatively short period of time," Yury Yarov said.

According to him, this fact makes it possible to hope that the assessments of the observers from the CIS and from other international organisations will not differ greatly.