Rabat – Having won a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential elections, Putin has received a cold shoulder from Western nations.
Published figures from Russia’s electoral commission claim that Vladimir Putin won 87.28% of the vote, putting him in a clear lead.
However, in light of the war that Russia continues to wage on Ukraine, the news has been met by much criticism from the West, with several EU countries, including France and Germany, refusing to congratulate President Putin.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, has spoken of “the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory” adding that “this is not what free and fair elections look like”. Moreover, Germany described it as a “pseudo-election”, held under censorship, repression and violence.
In addition, a joint statement from all 27 European Union (EU) countries has been released, declaring that Russians have been denied a “real choice”, since candidates who were opposed to the war on Ukraine, were excluded from running in the elections.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, denounced the elections, stating that they “took place in a highly restricted environment” where there was “systematic internal repression”.
The EU also highlights the death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny last month as a sign of this repression.
Vladimir Putin has already been in power for 24 years – 20 as president and four as prime minister of Russia – and he now stands with another six ahead of him. This puts him as the longest ruler of Russia since the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.
As Putin heads into his fifth term in office, there are concerns as to what this will mean for the people of Ukraine, who continue to face the perilous wrath of Russia’s war, more than two years in.
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