Strasbourg, 13.02.2012 – Russia on the eve of its Presidential election remains a nation poised between hope and fear, where much is possible but nothing is yet sure, according to a pre-electoral delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), concluding a four-day visit to Moscow.

The five-member delegation, in Moscow from 8 to 11 February 2012, met four of the five candidates: Sergey Mironov, Mikhail Prokhorov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Guennady Zyuganov. All stressed the urgent need to meet widespread popular demands for a fair election, in order to guarantee public confidence in the result, and put forward detailed – though differing – programmes for achieving this.

Candidates pointed to the recent major peaceful rallies in Moscow and elsewhere in the country as a wake-up call for change, as well as vibrant online debate and greater grassroots activism, which some described as a revival of real politics in Russia. (more...)

Read also: PACE co-rapporteurs make fact-finding visit to Hungary in the framework of a request for the opening of a monitoring procedure