MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday accused the United States of trying to taint the legitimacy of next week’s Russian parliamentary elections by pressing a group of prominent independent election observers to abandon efforts to monitor the campaign. Mr. Putin contended that the monitors, who are deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, had halted plans to appraise the parliamentary balloting at the urging of the State Department in Washington. Mr. Putin’s statements in recent weeks have taken on an increasingly nationalistic tone as he has sought to muster support for his party in the elections on Sunday. Speaking to reporters on Monday in St. Petersburg, he once again criticized what he suggested was foreign meddling in Russia’s affairs. ‘According to information we have, it was again done at the recommendation of the U.S. State Department, and we will take this into account in our interstate relations with this country,’ he said. ‘Their goal is the delegitimization of the elections. But they will not achieve even this goal.’ If Russia maintains a robust military, Mr. Putin later added, ‘we will not allow anyone to poke their snotty nose into our affairs.’ […]