Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Advises the United States to Engage in Its Own Elective Problems

The statements of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concerning the recently completed parliamentary elections in Russia, as well as the similar comments by the White House’s and U.S. Department of State’s representatives, are unacceptable, according to a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

“We regret to state that Washington adheres to long-outdated stereotypes and continues to call names, not even attempting to deal with what is actually happening on our electoral field,” the spokesman noted.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation underlines that “Russian citizens made their choice, having taken active part in the voting.” “Only they have right to determine the future of our country regardless of anyone’s prejudged appraisals and politicized recipes,” the comment says.

The Ministry recalled that “the U.S. electoral system is far from perfect.” “This was discussed many times. It can’t be the model of openness and fairness. The evidence of that is the traditionally low level of voter turnout at all elections. The U.S. executive branch would do better to analyze the reasons for this situation and find ways to rectify it,” the statement says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation hopes that in future the U.S. will abstain from “unfriendly insults that are contrary to the general positive development thrust of our bilateral relations.”

Recall that Hillary Clinton said that the recently completed parliamentary elections in Russia could be called neither free nor fair. She expressed this opinion in Vilnius, where the two-day session of the Council of Ministers of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) opened today.

Commenting on the results of the vote, Hillary Clinton said that the messages about the falsehood on the elections and other transgressions evoked “serious anxiety.” In particular, she referred to the refusal of the Russian Justice Department to register the oppositional “People’s freedom party for Russia without lawlessness and corruption” (PARNAS), and also to the massive cyber attacks on the website of the association of non-commercial organizations defending voters’ rights, GOLOS.

“When authorities fail to prosecute those who attack people for exercising their rights or exposing abuses, they subvert justice and undermine the people’s confidence in their governments. As we have seen in many places, and most recently in the Duma elections in Russia, elections that are neither free nor fair have the same effect,” Clinton said.

In her speech, the U.S. Secretary of State also underlined that Russian voters deserve a detailed investigation of all transgressions identified in the course of voting.