The FINANCIAL -- US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton suggested Russia's elections were neither free nor fair
as she made a broad plea on Tuesday for digital freedoms at a European
security gathering, according to TODAY'S ZAMAN.
Speaking to ministers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, she also accused Belarus of "unremitting persecution" of its opposition and suggested Ukraine prosecuted ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko for political reasons.Russia's Central Election Commission said Putin's United Russia party was to have 238 deputies in the 450-seat State Duma after Sunday's vote, down from 315 in the current lower house.
The result was Putin's worst election setback since he came to power 12 years ago and signalled growing weariness with his domination of Russian politics as he prepares to reclaim the presidency in an election next March.
Clinton repeated US concerns that the independent Russian political party Parnas was denied the right to register for Sunday's Duma elections, and that election observers such as the Golos network suffered cyber attacks.
The United States is pushing the OSCE, formed in the 1970s during the Cold War in part as a way for the Western and Soviet blocs to discuss human rights, to embrace a draft "Declaration on Fundamental Freedoms in the Digital Age."While Clinton said 28 OSCE members support the declaration, it appeared all but certain that it would not be adopted by the organisation, which operates by consensus.
Russia and Belarus are both blocking the declaration but other countries such as Turkey also have reservations, diplomatic sources told Reuters. "They are not going to get it," one source told Reuters.
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