Big Brother may no longer be watching in Russia, but the West certainly is, as evidenced by the arrival of a wave of international election observers this week.


According to the Central Election Commission, more than 900 observers from 50 different countries have been accredited to monitor the elections. Many of those observers -- including the British delegation, which held a press conference Thursday -- arrived earlier this week.


The goal of the observers at the polling stations is to make sure that the balloting is held in accordance with whatever standards they have chosen to apply, which in most cases is the Western democratic model.


In case of the British, the list of criteria is very long. They watch for any hint that authorities may have acted impartially, whether parties and candidates were allowed full freedom of movement and expression, or whether all voters were provided free access to vote.


"We feel we play an important role here," said Lady Patricia Elizabeth Rawlings, the leader of the British team.


"We obviously can't monitor balloting in every polling station, but our presence and the presence of other teams helps ensure that voters are given a free choice," she said.


Many Russians ask why, since Russia does not monitor Western elections, wondering whether it is appropriate or necessary that their balloting be monitored.


"We get that question a lot," said Rawlings. "But I always tell people that the first election I monitored with an international team was in Sheffield, England.


"I was joined by six Russians from Donetsk," she continued. "We were glad for their suggestions, as they are for ours."


David Merkel, a member of the U.S. government-funded International Republican Institute, agreed that the monitoring was mutually beneficial.


"In the last election we monitored, over 75 percent of the recommendations we made were eventually debated in the Duma," he said.


"About 60 percent of those recommendations were eventually incorporated into law. The Russians were very grateful."


A number of changes have been made in the Russian electoral process since 1993 as a result of recommendations by groups like Merkel's IRI.


Among those was a law stating that all aspects of the electoral process, including its schedule, should be written into law, rather than be governed by presidential decree.


Another made publishing the results of balloting at individual polling stations required by law.


A third suggesten written into the election code mandated that members of the military, when logistically possible, should vote in civil polling stations to eliminate the chance of coercion by superiors.