(dpa) - Sweden hopes that Dmitry Medvedev, the winner of the Russian presidential elections, will continue efforts to "deepen democracy" and carry out economic reforms, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Monday.
Reinfeldt said he regretted that the elections Sunday were not monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
"In Sweden and the European Union we are concerned about the democratic development in Russia, not the least regarding independent media," Reinfeldt said in a statement released by his office.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said that with the election of Medvedev, Finland hoped that "Russia should be as stable and predictable as possible," Finnish news agency STT reported.
Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin is slated to take over as prime minister in a move Vanhanen described as "unusual," but the Finnish premier noted that "both have given assurances that they are cooperating well in their new tasks."