Clinton criticizes Russian parliamentary election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Issuing new warnings to two U.S. partners Tuesday, December 6, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Russia for a parliamentary election she said was rigged.

Speaking to the election-monitoring Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vilnius, Clinton repeated criticism of Russia's weekend elections, in which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party won the largest share of parliament seats. Opposition politicians and election monitors say the result was inflated because of ballot-box stuffing and other vote fraud.

"Russian voters deserve a full investigation of electoral fraud and manipulation," Clinton said. Russia's top diplomat was present at the meeting in the Lithuanian capital, but the two did not plan to meet separately.

Later, Clinton met with activists from Belarus and encouraged them to continue opposing a recent crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko's regime, The Associated Press reported.