Civil society and election monitoring as factors of the new political process in Russia

Sammanfattning: The present thesis studies the monitoring of the 2012 Russian presidential elections and explores theoretical and empirical questions of the influence of domestic and international actors on the election process. The study of the election observation is one of the topics of the very large field of study on democratization and, more specifically, democracy-promotion and assistance; therefore in my research I am trying to answer the following questions: What were the possibilities and limitations for election observers in the Russian presidential election 2012? Were they different for domestic and international observers? In my research I am particularly interested in whether domestic actors, in the form of election observers, can increase the accuracy of information about elections and therefore increase the incentives for governments to hold clean elections (Hyde & Marinov 2012). In the conclusion of my thesis I present the unexpected facts and changes in Russian election process which influenced monitoring of the Russian presidential election 2012 and further work of domestic and international organizations in Russia.