1 month ago
Russia’s election result shows that the people have consolidated around Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has said after the president took 87.28% of the vote, according to an official tally.
The vote share, which equates to 76 million votes and is by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history, follows an election described as a mockery by an independent monitor group.
Dismissing western criticism that the election victory was unfair and undemocratic, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “This is the most eloquent confirmation of the level of support from the population of the country for its president, and its consolidation around him.”
Putin is due to speak later on Monday at a large stadium event in Moscow to mark the 10th anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Much of his address is likely to focus on his invasion of Ukraine, a topic that he made front and centre in his victory speech on Sunday night.
Putin on Sunday raised the possibility of setting up a buffer zone in Ukrainian territory to protect Russia, a statement Ukraine later said was an indication the war between the countries would escalate.
Western nations have broadly condemned Russia’s presidential election, with the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, saying on Monday: “These Russian elections starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war.
“Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy.”
Calling Russia a dictatorship, a German government spokesperson said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, would not congratulate Putin on his re-election in a vote viewed by Berlin as “predetermined”.
The EU similarly condemned Russia’s presidential election as violating “civil and political rights” as the bloc came together to discuss new sanctions against Moscow in response to the death of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The independent Russian election watchdog Golos said it had found unprecedented levels of fraud in the presidential elections. “Never before have we seen a presidential [election] campaign that fell so far short of constitutional standards,” said Golos, whose co-director is currently in jail in Russia.
“The elections failed to fulfil their main function: to reflect the real mood of citizens, and they did not allow [citizens] to independently and freely make decisions about the future of their country,” it added.
There were congratulations for Putin from the leaders of China and North Korea, two countries that have propped up Moscow in its fighting in Ukraine.
Putin also received messages from India and the United Arab Emirates, two traditional western allies that Moscow has successfully courted since the start of the war in Ukraine more than two years ago.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said on X: “Warm congratulations to H.E. Mr. Vladimir Putin on his re-election as the President of the Russian Federation.”
