Moscow Times
Thursday, October 26, 2000
Deputies Want to Save U.S.
By Anna Badkhen Staff Writer
Vote fraud alert! U.S. democracy is in danger!
But Americans need not worry: A group of vigilant Russian lawmakers is
determined to ride to the rescue.
Saying they are alarmed by "deep concern with the possible falsification"
of upcoming U.S. presidential elections, nine State Duma deputies have cobbled
together a two-page resolution to that they say will help keep the vote
fair.
The resolution, which is expected to be voted on by parliament Friday,
calls for the government to send a group of observers to monitor the Nov. 7
vote and to set up a foundation to protect U.S. democracy. It also envisions a
Voice of Russia radio station transmission to the United States "to provide
for the freedom of alternative information sources for American citizens."
"Why do Americans always teach everyone democracy? Why don't we go and see
what kind of democracy they have?" Deputy Georgy Tikhonov, one of the
resolution's authors, said by telephone Wednesday.
Other authors of the resolution include hard-core Communist Vasily
Shandybin and seven other deputies from the Communist Party and the Regions of
Russia faction.
Tikhonov said the resolution was inspired by the United States' conduct
during the disputed parliamentary elections in Belarus earlier this month.
The U.S. government called those elections unfair and refused to send
observers to Belarus. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
and the European Union, which sent only a low-level team of observers to the
poll, agreed that the election did not meet international standards.
However, Russia backed the elections as fair and democratic, and the
Foreign Ministry said the vote has been carried out "calmly and in an
organized fashion."
"We have never seen more democratic elections" than those in Belarus,
Tikhonov said.
Washington's behavior was "boorish" and "made us wonder just how democratic
the elections are in the U.S.," he said.
He added that the deputies are particularly concerned about elections in
Texas and California where "the forces that vote for larger autonomy suffer
from pressure that violates their inalienable democratic rights."
The Washington-based League of Women Voters, one of the principal U.S.
election watchdogs, declined to comment on the resolution. The OSCE also
refused to comment.
But other observers expressed disbelief.
"They [the deputies] are quite mad," said Ariel Cohen, a Russia and Eurasia
expert with the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
"But having seen the list [of the deputies behind the resolution] it
doesn't surprise me," he said by telephone from Washington. "These are the
people who will gleefully vote to return Stalin's national anthem ... to the
democratic Russia. These are the people who inhabit the world of their own,
the world of evil CIA spies and heroic Russian intelligence officers."
Yury Dzhibladze, president of the Moscow-based Center for the Development
of Democracy and Human Rights, said Russia had to prove itself democratic
before considering monitoring elections.
"How can a country that allows multitudinous violations during elections
honestly state anything like this?" said Dzhibladze.
"This project is reminiscent of the Soviet diplomacy of the 1960s and 1970s
-- no, even of Stalin's time," he said. "It may be funny, but it is also sad
that these politicians couldn't care less about Russia's reputation."
Fellow Duma lawmakers, who say the resolution won't pass, are giving it
little thought.
Yuly Rybakov, head of the Democratic Russia movement, called the resolution
"a mocking parade of idiots" and said the deputies behind it "simply wish to
travel to the States at their voters' expense."
Asked whether he is concerned about the legitimacy of the U.S. presidential
elections, Rybakov chuckled and said: "Oh, I am extremely concerned about
it."
