Rene Van der Linden said he hoped that the presidential elections in Russia would be held in compliance with democratic norms and principles.
At the December 2 parliamentary elections, United Russia, whose candidate list was headed by President Vladimir Putin, won 64% of votes. A joint statement by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe said the poll "was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections."
Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed as ungrounded the statements saying that the electoral legislation met the demands of the country's current stage of democratic development.
"I hope we'll receive corresponding invitations and, in accordance with them, we'll send our representatives to monitor the election campaign and the elections," Linden said.
Russia's Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov said after his meeting with the PACE president that in Linden's opinion those PACE members who are against Russia taking up the rotating presidency were in the minority.
Under PACE rules, on January 21-25 the organization will hold a regular rotation of its presidency, which should go to Mikhail Margelov, head of the Russian Federation Council's committee for international affairs and leader of PACE's European Democrats faction, Mironov said.
Mironov said he hoped that the tradition of rotating the presidency would continue as otherwise this would trample on democratic principles.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe consists of a number of representatives from each member state. A PACE president is elected each year from among such representatives for a maximum period of three sessions. Linden, PACE current president and Dutch parliamentary member, was elected in January 2005.
