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In reply to the discussion: Putin Human Rights Council Accidentally Posts REAL Crimean Elec Result-Only 15% Voted For Annexation [View all]The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)The person pictured at the link is not the author.
The author is a Ms. Halya Coynash, of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
The Guardian reported the presence of Enrique Revello, the person pictured....
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/ukraine-crisis-crimea-referendum
"State news agency Interfax quoted an international observer, Enrique Ravello, as saying he had seen an 'unprecedented turnout'. There's no coercion, pressure on people. The referendum is being held peacefully, freely and openly,' said the Spanish nationalist MP.
"No major international organisations are monitoring the vote, but a group of observers from 23 countries a mixture of anti-western ideologues and European far-right politicians have arrived of their own accord and gave a press conference in Simferopol on Saturday evening.
Belá Kovács, an MEP from the far-right Hungarian party Jobbik, said everything he had seen on Saturday conformed to international standards and he expected the vote to be free and fair.
Many of the observers railed against the west and said that by recognising Kosovo, the west had opened a Pandora's box and had to accept the result in Crimea.
"What is sauce for Kosovo's goose is certainly sauce for Crimea's gander," said Serbian-American writer Serge Trifkovic. When asked if observers had been paid to attend, he said that if he were looking for money he would have approached the CIA. The observers, he said, were "as poor as church mice".
Kovács said there were no British observers at the referendum. The BNP's Nick Griffin "really wanted to come, but we persuaded him not to", he said."