Ukraine's border control service stopped on Saturday a group of CIS observers from Russia, a deputy mission chief said.
"Border guards have stopped 92 people going from Russia to Ukraine's Donetsk Region to monitor the presidential runoff," Alexei Martynov said.
He added that the monitors represented the CIS-EMO organization and that their entry was refused over a lack of "a certain list from the Central Election Commission."
The CIS Election Monitoring Organization (CIS-EMO), established and registered in Russia in 2003, has been sending election observers to almost all member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States since 2004.
Martynov described the incident as absurd and said it had been reported to the Russian embassy in Ukraine.
"All the observers are officially registered with Ukraine's Central Election Commission, however they do not have their mandates on them, as the papers are kept at the mission headquarters in Donetsk," he said.
On Sunday, Ukraine will hold the runoff between frontrunner Viktor Yanukovych, who collected 35.32% of the votes in the first round on January 17, and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who came second with 25.05%.
KIEV, February 6 (RIA Novosti)
