Moscow, Jan 31 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia's largest independent election monitoring group said Monday of being pressured by the authorities ahead of presidential polls at which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to seek a third stint in the Kremlin.

"We are talking here about the open intimidation of Golos members and attempts to evict the organisation from its office," the election monitoring group Golos representative Alexander Kynev said at a downtown Moscow news conference.

He also said the authorities were guilty of "phone-tapping, as well as breaking into letter boxes and accounts on social networking sites."

Western-funded Golos often complains of pressure by the authorities. Late last year, a report on state television accused the organisation of serving the US interests and attempting to instigate a revolution in Russia.

The group's head, Lilya Shibanova, was also detained for over 12 hours at a Moscow airport ahead of last December's parliamentary polls after she refused to hand over a laptop that Customs officials said could contain material harmful to Russia's interests.

Golos, which plans to deploy some 2,000 monitors to the March polls, says it has been ordered to vacate its Moscow office by Wednesday, despite having paid through Aug 1.

December's parliamentary polls saw widespread claims of vote fraud in favour of Putin's United Russia party and were followed by the largest anti-government protests in Moscow for some two decades.

A new mass rally is due to take place in the Russian capital Feb 4