Lavrov calls for end to ‘electoral neocolonialism’

The West is using so-called ‘observers’ to meddle in voting around the globe, the Russian foreign minister has said

The “global majority” must resist US and EU attempts to use observers to interfere in elections around the world, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged.

Lavrov made the statement in a video address to the participants of the International Research and Practice Conference on Ensuring the Observation and Expert Assessment of Electoral Processes, which took place in Moscow on Tuesday.

The event, organized by the Center for International Interaction and Cooperation, brought together some 150 public figures, MPs, academics and experts from 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to address Western electoral influence.  It was held with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation and Russia’s cultural exchange agency, Rossotrudnichestvo.

Lavrov said that the West is meddling in the internal affairs of other nations not only through staging so-called ‘Color Revolutions’ or using force directly, but also through what he described as “electoral neocolonialism.”

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The “global minority” relies on its monitors “conducting biased external observation [of elections] and then presenting its results, with the help of partisan media, as the final view of the entire international community,” he said.

“Russia cannot and will not support the continuation of such practices… Together with like-minded partners, we advocate for criteria that would allow for an unbiased assessment of electoral processes in the countries of the Global South and East,” the foreign minister said.

The conference in the Russian capital has launched the process of creating the first global independent international non-governmental association in the field of electoral and political monitoring, the organizers of the event said.

The new body aims to organize monitoring missions to objectively assess the openness and legitimacy of voting in various countries, while promoting non-interference approach in the electoral processes, they added.

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The Russian authorities “welcome the idea of creating an association for monitoring electoral processes, which could serve as an alternative institution for election assessment in a multipolar world. Such a structure should ensure independent and depoliticized observation, offering a counterweight to Western approaches,” Lavrov said.