Russia’s Preemptive Denial of Electoral Fraud

As the Kremlin is apparently already expecting to receive complaints of irregularity in the upcoming parliamentary elections, it is acting preemptively to lay the groundwork to deny the legitimacy of any such claims. State Duma International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachyov told Interfax:

“Any conclusions about the forthcoming election can only be made on the basis of the conclusions made by the observer mission. Any conclusion made by any country unilaterally appears to me illegitimate as such and must be rejected both by Russia and the international community.”

I’m not sure if I can recall any historical precedent of a government preemptively denying any allegation of electoral fraud before it has even been made…