OSCE to send 200 observers to Russian parliamentary election.

WARSAW, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights /ODIHR/ that reports to the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe has received an invitation to send an observer
mission to watch the December 2011 election to the lower house of Russian
parliament, the State Duma, Jens Eschenbaecher, the ODIHR press secretary
said.
He indicated that the ODIHR plans sending the mission to Russia six
weeks prior to the election.
According to Eschenbaecher, the Russian side stated in its invitation
it was ready to host not more than 200 observers, including the experts
with long-term stays and short-term sojourns.
Eschenbaecher admitted that the ODIHR expected a greater quota but he
said that 200 persons would be enough to the office to do the election
monitoring job as it found appropriate.
The ODIHR initially harbored the hopes to sent 200 short-term
observers and 60 long-term observers to Russia.