KIEV, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine dealt another blow to the prestige of the Commonwealth of Independent States Tuesday, when it said that observers would not be allowed to represent the loose post-Soviet association at the country's parliamentary elections in March.
First Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteiko said that parliament had decided against giving the organization the status of a subject of international law in 1991, which meant observers would be barred from monitoring the spring vote under national legislation.
Ukraine has taken a cautious position in regard to the CIS, which is generally seen as being Russia-dominated, since pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko was elected president in late 2004, echoing a similar stance assumed by Georgia after its own change of power in 2003. Many politicians there have since called the CIS ineffective and in November 2005 the main political opposition proposed in the parliament withdrawing from the association.
However, Buteiko added that Ukraine was ready to invite observers from individual CIS member countries rather than from the association itself.
The elections to the Ukrainian single-chamber 450-seat parliament are scheduled for March 26.
