LONDON: Russia has a duty to uphold democratic norms and standards, Britain said Monday as it waited "with interest" for independent OSCE reports on the validity of the presidential election.
Vladimir Putin on Monday reclaimed the Kremlin after a crushing victory in the election but faced protests by the opposition who said the poll was undermined by fraud.
Britain said it was waiting for reports from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and its election-observing Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
"We await the preliminary report of the OSCE-ODIHR election observation mission with interest," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP.
"We fully support the importance of democratic elections in Russia, as elsewhere in the world. As a Council of Europe member state, Russia has an obligation to uphold key democratic norms and standards."
Putin secured almost 64 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, winning back the Russian presidency which he held from 2000-2008 before his four-year stint as prime minister, the central election commission said.
Following the Russian parliamentary elections in December, Britain called for a rapid and transparent investigation following an OSCE report that said the vote was slanted in favour of Putin's ruling United Russia party.
The Foreign Office said the report's conclusions underlined the need to ensure that all democratic institutions in Russia, including the media, civil society, and opposition political groups, were able to operate freely.
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