There will be no election watchdogs in Russia this time.

Elections are December 2. But Russia delayed the visas and laid down so many restrictions about how many foreign election observers they'd allow, where they could go, and when they could report, that the Office for Democratic and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe just gave up.

On the other hand, I can understand Russia's resistance. Imagine how we'd feel if the United Nations were to send some committee to the U.S. to see that our next presidential election was fair and accurate.

On the third hand, I kind of like the idea.