Western governments are questioning the legitimacy of Putin’s victory

The victory of the Russian president, Vladimir Putinin the elections which closed on Sunday, represents for Western governments the confirmation of a repressive tendency That leaves no room for a minimum of dissenting opinions. Without independent international observers doubt the legitimacy of the process and the overwhelming majority awarded to Putin by local authorities.

For the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Joseph Borrellwere neither free nor fair elections, but rather had ‘repression’ and ‘intimidation’ as their sole pillar. Not a single relevant opposition candidate could take on Putin forced the vote even in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

France “takes note” of the results, but agrees that “once again the conditions for speaking of free, plural and democratic elections were not met,” partly because none of Putin’s rival theorists opposed the elections. invasion of Ukraine.

These were “elections without options”, as the German Foreign Minister has noted. Annalena Baerbockwhose department directly spoke of “pseudo-elections” in a post on social networks in which it also criticized Putin’s “authoritarianism” and violations of international law in Ukraine.

Along these lines, the British Foreign Secretary, David Cameronrecalled that holding elections on “Ukrainian territory” is “illegal”, in a post on social networks in which he also highlighted the lack of real alternatives to the vote and the absence of observers from outside the Kremlin.

The White House also assumes that these elections cannot be considered democratic, as Putin has “imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running for office,” although some of the harshest criticism of the Russian president has come from his Ukrainian counterpart have arrived. Volodymyr Zelenskywho has not hesitated to call him a ‘dictator’ and say that he is ‘drunk with power’.

The Kremlin’s main spokesperson, Dimitri PeskovHowever, considers it “absurd” that the legitimacy of the elections can be questioned and has suggested that casting doubt on the process in general terms also entails doubting the votes awarded to Putin, who have more than would amount to 87% of the total.