Milan, 21 Sept. (LaPresse) – “The so-called Duma elections have marked another serious setback for Russian democracy. Their outcome was never in doubt. The Kremlin has silenced dissent, excluded the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine and barred international election observers from entering the country. All that remains in Russia is a mere semblance of democracy.” This was the comment by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, on the parliamentary elections held from Friday to Sunday in Russia, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is, as expected, leading in the preliminary results. “I have proposed measures against those who facilitate these sham elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories,” Kallas added. The elections were in fact also held in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the start of the war – but which it does not yet fully control – and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Russia, Kallas: ‘Duma elections a fresh blow to democracy, dissent silenced’
Milan, 21 Sept. (LaPresse) – “The so-called Duma elections have marked another serious setback for Russian democracy. Their outcome was never in doubt. The Kremlin has silenced dissent, excluded the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine and barred international election observers from entering the country. All that remains in Russia is a mere semblance of democracy.” This was the comment by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, on the parliamentary elections held from Friday to Sunday in Russia, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is, as expected, leading in the preliminary results. “I have proposed measures against those who facilitate these sham elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories,” Kallas added. The elections were in fact also held in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the start of the war – but which it does not yet fully control – and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.