White House Concerned on Russia Election Observers

`We certainly want to see free and fair elections in Russia,` White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The White House, which has criticized Russia for backsliding on democracy, said on Wednesday it was concerned and disappointed Moscow had cut the number of international observers for parliamentary elections.

A maximum of 400 international observers will monitor Russia's Dec. 2 parliamentary vote, Russia's election chief said on Monday. That would be substantially fewer than for previous parliamentary elections.

Russian officials have expressed reservations about the West "lecturing" Moscow on its democratic record.

At a White House news briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked about Moscow's plan to reduce the number of observers and whether this raised concerns about the fairness of the elections.

"We certainly want to see free and fair elections in Russia. And we are concerned and disappointed by the belated timing and the conditional nature of Russia's invitation to election observers," Perino said.

"Any conditions that are placed on them are of concern to us. And we will certainly be bringing this up with the Russians," she said.

The parliamentary vote is widely seen as a referendum on President Vladimir Putin, who is leading the pro-Kremlin United Russia party into the election, but he is not expected to take up a seat in parliament.