Fraud and pressure marred Russian election: monitors

By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Corruption, official pressure on voters and Soviet-era turnout figures were features of Russia's parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin's party in a landslide, independent monitors said on Tuesday.

"I'd call this election a triumph of political corruption," Transparency International's Yuly Nisnevich told a news conference. "I am afraid the fight against corruption has ended in our country."

The Russian branch of Berlin-based Transparency International and Golos, an independent network of election observers, presented their findings based on vote violations their monitors had documented at the December 2 election.

Ballot box stuffing was widespread, said Andrei Buzin, an expert at Golos.

He cited a case at a polling station in central Moscow where a monitor said he had spotted a local election commission official throwing a wad of ballots into a box, minutes before the station had been due to open on December 2.

In another case, a district election commission in Moscow added 812 votes in favor of Putin's United Russia party to a protocol from a polling station, Buzin said.

"This is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail. This must be a strong signal that we have really degenerated to a level very close to Soviet election standards," he said.

Putin had said a big win for his United Russia party would give him a "moral right" to continue to influence Russian politics after he stepped down in 2008.