Presidential Elections
The European Union observed the presidential elections in Ruusiain January 1997. Incumbent Russia. President Boris Yeltsin was seeking a four-year term after officially winning the 1991 presidential election.
This observation was one of the first decisions of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy after the establishment of the EU competence by the Maastricht Treaty. Before 2000, election observations were deployed and formated on an ad hoc political basis.
Precise criteria whether to deploy or not, as well as detailled working structure and methodology were defined in the EC Communication COM2000(199).
