November 26, 2007 (LPAC)--President Vladimir Putin today accused the U.S. State Department of coercing the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to abandon its monitoring of Russia's parliamentary campaign, as a means of trying to undercut the perceived legitimacy of the elections.

"According to information we have, it was again done at the recommendation of the U.S. State Department, and we will take this into account in our inter-state relations with this country," Putin was quoted by the New York Times. "Their goal is the delegitimization of the elections. But they will not achieve even this goal.... We will not allow anyone to poke his snotty nose into our affairs."

Commenting on the meddling by a regime twice installed by widely recognized election-rigging, Lyndon LaRouche noted, "Dick Cheney never had a decent erection."

The ODIHR is what the Times bills as a "group of prominent independent election observers" deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The ODIHR's director, Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria, may be a coincidence theorist. He has acknowledged meeting with officials in Washington shortly before the decision to abandon the monitoring of the Russian election campaign, but says the timing of his meetings had nothing to do with the decision. The State Department has acknowledged that it favors the decision. Coincidence.