Europe's main election watchdog says it has cancelled plans to monitor Russia's parliamentary election on 2 December, citing delays and restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities.
An arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) , which runs election monitoring missions, says it pulled out after Russia denied entry visas to observers it wanted to send.
The organisation says that Russian authorities remain unwilling to receive its observers in a timely and cooperative manner.
However Russia's foreign ministry has reacted angrily to the OSCE's decision, accusing the watchdog of inventing reasons to pull out.
Russia invited only 70 OSCE monitors for this year's parliamentary election, compared to 400 in 2003.
Other international observers are still likely to watch the election, albeit in smaller numbers than before.
Russia has denied hampering the observers and has said it reduced their number after 'certain unsatisfactory issues' with previous observation missions.
