US-Russia vote spat clouds Spain summit

The United States and Russia accused one another Thursday of trying to manipulate the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a dispute over Russia's upcoming elections.

The OSCE has said it will not send observers to monitor Sunday's parliamentary elections because Moscow was slow in issuing visas and sent invitations for only 70 monitors, far fewer than for previous elections.

On Thursday, a top U.S. official bluntly accused Russia of working to weaken the OSCE and its election monitoring mission.

"We fear that the fundamental understanding of how to achieve democratic peace in Europe has been under assault from within this organization," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in Madrid, where delegates to the OSCE were conferring for an annual meeting.

Russia has said the United States is behind the OSCE decision. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the U.S. comments as "not constructive."

"This says that our warnings that the OSCE has become a tool used for political purposes by one group of nations against another group of nations ... have proven true," Lavrov said in remarks carried on Russian television.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the United States for the OSCE's decision not to send an observer team to Russia — a claim Burns and the OSCE flatly rejected.

Putin said last weekend that the absence of monitors was designed to cast doubt on the credibility of the vote, which the main pro-Kremlin party is expected to win by a landslide — an outcome that would allow Putin to claim a mandate to continue leading the country after he steps down as president in March as required.

The 56-nation OSCE is made up of countries from Europe, Central Asia and North America. It deals primarily with preventing conflicts, observing elections, managing crises and rehabilitating post-conflict areas. It operates by consensus, and its decisions are politically influential but not legally binding.

About 45 foreign ministers and other delegates are in Madrid for the OSCE's yearly two-day council of ministers meeting.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called for unity among member nations.

"The OSCE has united us in the struggle to construct a Europe at peace with itself," he said Thursday, also highlighting the need for consensus on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which he called "the cornerstone of peace."

Russia plans to suspend its compliance with the treaty next month to protest a U.S. proposal to station anti-missile installations in eastern Europe.