Ukraine might have to resort to firm unilateral action if it wants to prevent Russian observers from taking part in the OSCE monitoring mission being sent to observe the country’s March 31 presidential election.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, says it needs 850 monitors from its 57 member states in order to execute an effective observation and has asked all its members, including Russia, to provide monitors.
On Jan 18. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia had received the OSCE’s formal invitation to send observers to monitor Ukraine’s election but did not elaborate further.
Ukraine opposes Russian monitors
Given the de-facto state of war between Russia and Ukraine, and Russia’s ongoing hybrid aggression against the country, some Ukrainian lawmakers and government officials have signaled their staunch opposition to having Russian monitors observe their upcoming elections.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Jan. 9 that he had written to the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or ODIHR – a part of the OSCE that observes elections – and said the Ukrainian government wanted and welcomed an observation mission for its upcoming election but “would not accept applications” from Russians.
“I think it is necessary, when it comes to observers from the aggressor and occupation country,” Klimkin wrote in a statement, also claiming that there were “many such precedents” in OSCE practice to prevent such monitors.
“Ukraine can expect that Russia will use its observers for political purposes in line with the Kremlin’s destabilization strategy in Ukraine,” Svitlana Zalishchuk, a Ukrainian member of parliament and member of Ukraine’s Committee for Foreign Affairs told Kyiv Post on Jan. 21.
But according to the ODIHR, who spoke with Kyiv Post on Jan. 16 and Jan. 21, it might not be as simple as some lawmakers hope, with Ukraine having less control over the monitor selection process as some have previously suggested.
“ODIHR has sent a request for the secondment of long- and short-term observers to all of the OSCE participating States, except for Ukraine,” said ODIHR senior spokesperson Thomas Rymer.
“The observers are selected by the participating States that second (the monitors),” he added, implying that Ukraine has no opportunity to “not accept applications” as Klimkin had earlier said.
“All OSCE participating States have committed themselves to accept observers as part of ODIHR missions from whichever participating States wish to second,” Rymer added.
Asked whether it’s correct and appropriate for Russian observers to be taking part in election monitoring missions in Ukraine at this time, Rymer said that the ODIHR has strict controls in place to ensure the objectivity and professionalism of its monitoring missions.
All ODIHR observers are “bound by a strict code of conduct, including with regard to impartiality and non-interference in the electoral process,” he said.
“Observers work in international teams of two, so that each pair is made up of two people from different countries observing and providing information jointly. This information is then integrated into the broader assessment by our core team of experts, which will be based in Kyiv,” Rymer added.
Refusing the Russian observers
Lawmakers like Klimkin, committed to preventing Russian observers joining the ODIHR monitoring mission, could find themselves pushed aside as the other 56 OSCE member states – or as many that move to volunteer and second monitors – select the mission’s 850 election observers.
To refuse Russian monitors, Ukraine might be faced with having to resort to more drastic and unprecedented measures such as blocking their access to the country or denying them documentation.
“There have been instances in the past where countries have not issued visas for individual observers, as is their prerogative according to international law,” said Rymer. “But not refused all observers seconded by a particular country,” he added.
“I’m not sure there are Russian observers that remember what democratic elections are,” said Zalishchuk. “Ukrainian elections cannot be observed by the country that annexed our territory,” she added.
