Kremlin says it did not follow opposition Coordination Council ballot

The Kremlin did not follow a recent nationwide election to the Russian opposition's Coordination Council and has no immediate plans to hold a dialogue with this entity, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"Our agenda today was dominated by the Ukrainian president's visit, and we had no opportunity to follow these elections," the Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the newspaper.

It is too early to say whether or not the Kremlin will cooperate with the opposition's Coordination Council in any way, he said.

"First, we need to understand how these elections proceeded, who took part in them and who won," Peskov said.

A nationwide election for the opposition's Coordination Council was conducted on Monday. People were able to vote both online and at polling stations, which were set up in almost all Russian regions and seven cities abroad.

Opposition supporters picked 45 Coordination Council members from the 209 candidates registered on the Central Electoral Committee Web site, including Alexei Navalny, Dmitry Bykov, Garry Kasparov, Ksenia Sobchak, Ilya Yashin and other opposition activists and journalists.

The Central Electoral Committee has estimated that up to 82,000 people voted in the election.

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