Europe watchdog scraps plans to monitor Russia vote

(Adds Russian, EU reaction)

MOSCOW, Feb 7 (Reuters ) - Europe's main security and human rights watchdog said on Thursday it had cancelled plans to monitor Russia's presidential election next month, citing unacceptable restrictions imposed by Moscow.

"We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission," said ODIHR director Christian Strohal in a statement. "... the Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation".

Russia said it suspected ODIHR's intention from the outset was to boycott the election.

It added that ODIHR had displayed "contempt for basic ethical norms ... which, it seems, indicates that ODIHR from the start was not even trying to agree on mutually acceptable conditions for monitoring."

"The Presidency regrets that, due to the restrictions (laid down by Russia) ... the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) was put in a situation where it found it impossible to execute its mandate and cancelled the election observation mission," it said in a statement.

The pullouts follow a row with Moscow over the number of observers permitted to watch the election and the date they could begin their work. The ODIHR complained that too few observers were invited, too late in the campaign.

Shortly before the OSCE announced its pullout, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that Moscow would not bow to ultimatums and said the organisation needed reform to stop it from "inventing instructions".

A spokesman for the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly declined to comment on whether it would go ahead with its mission next month after the two OSCE bodies had pulled out.

(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Vienna, Conor Sweeney in Moscow and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Editing by Richard Balmforth)