04 December,2011 09:24 AM IST | | Agencies
As Russia prepares for Duma polls to elect sixth post-Soviet parliament of the country today, India's Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi will be one of the many foreign monitors observing the election process.
Quraishi is on a five-day visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Churov accompanied by his E C Director General Akshay Rout. Russia has hosted over 700 foreign monitors to observe the poll process in the country, even as the authorities cracked down on a US-funded marginal NGO 'Golos', projected by the Western media as an independent election watchdog. It was fined 30 thousand roubles (about Rs 50,000) by a civil court allegedly for indulging in smear campaign against United Russia and some other parties.
