Reform of OSCE election monitoring system is needed, Russia says after Ukraine banned observers

Moscow is insisting on the need to reform the monitoring system of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the wake of Ukraine's decision to ban Russian observers from monitoring Ukraine’s presidential election. “That’s another example of the need to move towards reforming the election monitoring mechanisms, putting them on a solid contractual basis ruling out the possibility of dividing countries into some groups or subgroups,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said on Thursday. “All our proposals are on the negotiating table in Vienna,” TASS quoted him as saying. Ukraine held the first round of presidential election on March 31.