Russia sought to monitor US voting

In an apparent move to embarrass the United States over Donald Trump’s claims of a “rigged” presidential election, Russia sought to send monitors to U.S. polling stations for the Nov. 8 vote, Russian media revealed Thursday.

The bid was sharply rebuffed by the State Department, and one state election official threatened criminal action if Russian monitors showed up, according to the statecontrolled Izvestia daily and broadcaster RT.

State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner called the Russian effort a “PR stunt” and denied that the United States blocked Russian diplomats from observing the election.

Trump, who is behind in most polls, has complained for weeks about potential election fraud. In Wednesday night’s debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Republican nominee refused to say whether he would abide by the results on Election Day.

On Thursday, he said he will “totally accept the results — if I win.”

Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, have become prominent issues in the U.S. campaign and were mentioned during Wednesday’s debate for allegedly interfering in the election.

U.S. intelligence officials say Russia is behind a series of computer hacks that leaked embarrassing emails from the Democratic National Committee and top Clinton campaign staffers. Trump was skeptical about Russia’s role in the leaks and deflected Clinton’s charge that he is an admirer of Putin and overlooks the Russian leader’s alleged meddling in the election and other antiU.S. positions.

The United States often sends monitors to observe elections in other countries with a history of voter fraud.

Izvestia said Russia made the request for monitors in the U.S. during talks with the State Department and was “categorically rejected.”