The conduct of the 2012 Presidential elections was monitored by national and international observers. The intergovernmental observers who were monitoring the elections were the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The ODIHR (OSCE) on 5th of March issued a preliminary report. The report can be found here.
PACE noted on 5th of March that “Although candidates in yesterday’s presidential election in the Russian Federation were able to campaign unhindered, conditions were clearly skewed in favour of one of the contestants, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the international observers concluded in a statement issued today”. The full text can be found here.
The CIS observers evaluated the elections “as complying with the Electoral Law of the Russian Federation and with commonly recognised democratic principles”. The full text in Russian can be found here.