The (Ex) Washington Realist

So not only do different international organizations have their own opinions, they increasingly have their own facts. An interesting item from Regnum:

"Observers from CIS and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) have disagreed with observers from OSCE and PACE on the nature of parliament vote for the State Duma of the 5th convocation held in Russia Dec 2 2007. The former two groups find the vote democratic, free, and transparent, while the latter ones call it unfair and failing to meet many standards of OSCE and the Council of Europe."

So if the OSCE won't give you a clean bill of health, the SCO will. Interesting to see whether this marks yet another trend in the evolution of the World Without the West, with the traditional "certifiers" of elections now facing some competition--and with alternatives now in place to dliute the ratings given by the OSCE.