"We expect around 350 accredited monitors," CEC member Igor Borisov told a RIA Novosti conference.
He said the commission had not yet considered redistributing the monitoring vacancies created as a result of Thursday's decision by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to boycott the Russian election.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly announced on Thursday that they would not monitor the polls due to restrictions imposed by Russian election authorities.
On Thursday, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin said the ODIHR had deliberately set out to boycott the presidential election, and accused the organization of bias against Russia.
Ilkka Kanerva, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Finnish foreign minister, expressed his disappointment on Thursday over the breakdown of talks between the ODIHR and Russia on monitoring the country's presidential election.
In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country expected the OSCE to launch talks on election monitoring to enhance cooperation between OSCE member states and the ODIHR.
"We expect the OSCE to finally launch talks on election monitoring, which could fill the legislative vacuum in the area, and set boundaries of cooperation between its member countries and the OSCE's ODIHR," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia's CEC also expressed hopes that the OSCE would soon consider reforming the ODIHR, and accused the body of lacking strict principles for election monitoring.
The ODIHR boycotted Russia's parliamentary polls on December 2 last year, citing visa delays and "unprecedented restrictions," and the OSCE subsequently declared the polls "not free and fair." However, observers from Russia and a number of former Soviet republics rejected the OSCE's report.
The Nordic Council, a co-operation forum for Nordic parliaments and governments, also said on Friday it had decided not to send observers to Russia's March 2 elections.
"The Presidium's principles for sending Nordic Council observers to cover elections stipulate that they may only be sent to parliamentary elections in the adjacent areas. As a result, the Council will not be able to send observers to cover the Russian presidential elections on 2 March 2008," the body said on its website.
Russia's State Duma received on Thursday confirmation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's plans to send 30 observers to the presidential polls.
However, a pre-electoral delegation of PACE began monitoring work in Russia on Thursday. Concluding a two-day visit to Moscow, the group expressed doubts on Friday over "the prospects of holding of a good presidential election in Russia."
The delegation said that candidates have been "confronted with almost insurmountable difficulties," and that "an election where there is not a level playing field for all contestants can hardly be considered as fair."
"While the forthcoming election may appear competitive to some, with four candidates in the running, the real choice of alternatives is limited at best," the delegation said.
A number of candidates were refused permission by Russia's election authorities to register for the polls, including ex-premier Mikhail Kasyanov, whose application was turned down last month due to irregularities in signatures collected backing his candidacy. Non-party candidates have to gather 2 million signatures supporting their election bid in order to be registered for the polls.
The Kremlin front-runner in next month's presidential elections, Dmitry Medvedev, has the backing of 63 % of voters, state-run VTsIOM pollster said on Wednesday.
According to the poll, of the other three candidates registered to run, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky are expected to receive 7% of the vote each.
The leader of the tiny pro-Western Democratic Party, Andrei Bogdanov, is expected to receive around 1% of the vote.
