"Russia is a very strong and stable country in Europe and they have no reason not to welcome all the observers in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia," Ilkka Kanerva, Finland's foreign minister and the current president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Tuesday, Jan. 23, as reported by AFP news agency.

Kanerva had met on Monday with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko about an OSCE mission for the March 2 election.

The Vienna-based group withdrew its mission to the December parliamentary elections after Moscow delayed invitations to its representatives and cut back the number of authorized observers.

"The basic idea of the OSCE today is to normalize the election monitoring circumstances, not to repeat the circumstances we met in the Duma elections in November," said Kanerva.

Candidate charged with fraud

Also on Tuesday, Russia's chief prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against opposition leader and presidential candidate Mikhail Kasyanov for allegedly falsifying nomination signatures.

Kasyanov, who served as prime minister during President Vladimir Putin's first term, needs 2 million signatures to run for president because he does not belong to a party represented in the Duma.

Even if he were to obtain the right to run in the election, his chances are considered slim, as the Kremlin has endorsed Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently first deputy prime minister as well as chairman of the national energy company Gazprom.

The election commission in Moscow told Russian press that Kasyanov would be eliminated from the running if more than 5 percent of the signatures were spurious.

Kasyanov has denied the claims.

The final list of candidates is expected to be released early next week. Gennadi Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party, and Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, are also registered as candidates, though Putin's pick Medvedev is considered to be the clear favorite.