Political analysts condemn Klaus' comment on Russian polls

Prague, Dec 8 (CTK) - Czech political analysts addressed by CTK have criticised President Vaclav Klaus's statement that Russian elections are a matter of no one but Moscow, which he made at a joint press conference with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague yesterday.

Complaints about the Sunday elections being manipulated have appeared in Russia and abroad.

Medvedev himself yesterday admitted that the election law may have been breached.

"The elections are theirs and not ours. It is what I base all my assessments on," Klaus said.

He added that he does not like to hear comments on some domestic Czech problems abroad either.

Political analyst Rudolf Kucera, however, called Klaus's statement "totally untrue."

Nowhere in the world elections are only an internal matter of the country concerned. "Mainly in countries with less advanced democracy there are attempts to influence [elections]," Kucera said.

Analyst Bohumil Dolezal said the situation in Russia definitely differs from that in the former Soviet Union, but "it cannot be overlooked that it is still far from ideal."

To explain why he shunned assessing the Russian polls, Klaus also said he was not a member of an observers' mission.

"I must admit that it probably would not be appropriate either to ask President Medvedev what he thinks about the Wednesday strike of Czech teachers, whether it was justified or not," Klaus said.

Dolezal criticised this statement as "overdone."

"I wonder to know whether he would say this about elections in Belarus as well...It would have been better if he had said nothing," Dolezal said, referring to Klaus.

The analysts agreed that the press conference showed Klaus's favourable relation to Russia once again.

"The Czech government and public's relation to Russia differs from Klaus's, there are differences resting in the latter's warm, accommodating position," said Kucera.

"I didn't expect the president to continue this trend of his so intensively," said Dolezal.

The United Russia party of PM Vladimir Putin and Medvedev won the Sunday elections. Medvedev led the list of the party's candidates.

However, the party gained only 49.5 percent of the vote, which is markedly less than in the previous polls, and its position in parliament has considerably weakened.

The opposition regards the polls as unfair. Unprecedented mass demonstrations against the election course and results were staged in Moscow and other Russian towns. The police arrested hundreds of demonstrators.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Russian elections were neither free nor just. Criticism has also been heard from the EU.

The course of the Russian polls has also been criticised by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

He told Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes yesterday that observers are critical of the Russian elections. "This is naturally regrettable as we hoped that the times when force was used to influence elections are over," Schwarzenberg said.