By The Pathfinder
Monday March 18 2024
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Ella Pamfilova, Chairwoman of Russia’s Central Election Commission, announces preliminary results of the presidential election in Moscow, Russia, March 17, 2024.
Following are reactions from foreign governments and officials to Russia’s presidential election, which handed Vladimir Putin a landslide win and another six-year term in office, according to first official results on Sunday.
WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESPERSON
“The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY
“These days, the Russian dictator is simulating another election. It is clear to everyone in the world that this figure, as it has already often happened in the course of history, is simply sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever.”
“There is no legitimacy in this imitation of elections and there cannot be. This person should be on trial in The Hague. That’s what we have to ensure.”
GERMANY’S FOREIGN MINISTRY ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM X
“The pseudo-election in Russia is neither free nor fair, the result will surprise nobody. Putin’s rule is authoritarian, he relies on censorship, repression & violence. The “election” in the occupied territories of Ukraine are null and void & another breach of international law.”
UK FOREIGN MINISTER DAVID CAMERON ON X
“The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.”
POLISH FOREIGN MINISTRY STATEMENT
“From March 15-17, 2024, so-called presidential elections took place in Russia. The voting took place in conditions of extreme repression against society, making it impossible to make a free, democratic choice.”
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(Reporting by Reuters bureaus. Compiled by Global News Desk Editing by Frances Kerry, Ros Russell and David Holmes”)
Putin wins Russia election in landslide with no serious competition
… Putin wins 88% of vote – exit poll
… New term gives Putin six more years in power
… War hung over the election
… Ukraine strikes Russia with drones and rockets
… Thousands come out for ‘noon against Putin’ protest
President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.
Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, made it clear that the result should send a message to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come.
The outcome means Putin, 71, is set to embark on a new six-year term that will see him overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years if he completes it.
Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM).
The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. First official results indicated the polls were accurate. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.
Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.
Putin told supporters in a victory speech in Moscow that he would prioritise resolving tasks associated with what he called Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and would strengthen the Russian military.
“We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated – no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us – nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future,” said Putin.
Supporters chanted “Putin, Putin, Putin” when he appeared on stage and “Russia, Russia, Russia” after he had delivered his acceptance speech.
Inspired by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month, thousands of opponents protested at noon against Putin at polling stations inside Russia and abroad.
Putin told reporters he regarded Russia’s election as democratic and said the Navalny-inspired protest against him had had no effect on the election’s outcome.
In his first comments on his death, he also said that Navalny’s passing had been a “sad event” and confirmed that he had been ready to do a prisoner swap involving the opposition politician.
When asked by a NBC, a U.S. TV network, whether his re-election was democratic, Putin criticised the U.S. political and judicial systems.
“The whole world is laughing at what is happening (in the United States),” he said. “This is just a disaster, not a democracy.”
“…Is it democratic to use administrative resources to attack one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States, using the judiciary among other things?” he asked, making an apparent reference to four criminal cases against Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The Russian election comes just over two years since Putin triggered the deadliest European conflict since World War Two by ordering the invasion of Ukraine.”
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