UK, Ukraine, and Others Reject Putin’s “Illegal” Election Win

Vladimir Putin’s friends and allies were eager to congratulate him on winning the election, while Western officials from the UK, Ukraine, and other countries decried what they considered to be an illegitimate election.

The primary responses thus far are summarized as follows:

– Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, deemed the outcome to be invalid. “This person, like many others throughout history, has become sick with power and will stop at nothing to rule forever, as everyone in the world understands,” he declared.

“He will do anything terrible to hold onto his position of authority. Furthermore, nobody on the planet could have been protected from this.

• David Cameron, the foreign minister of the United Kingdom, stated that “a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring” were features of the “illegal” polls, adding that “this is not what free and fair elections look like.”

Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister of Italy, declared that the elections “were neither free nor fair.”

“In accordance with international law, we are continuing to work for a just peace that will force Russia to end its war of aggression against Ukraine.”

• Beijing expressed its congratulations to Putin, stating that “in the new era, China and Russia are each other’s largest neighbors and comprehensive strategic cooperative partners.”

President Xi Jinping and Putin “will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold longstanding good-neighborly friendship, and deepen comprehensive strategic coordination,” according to foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian.

• Long before the results were officially released, former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev commented on Telegram, stating: “I congratulate Vladimir Putin on his splendid victory in the election.”

“The Serb people welcomed with joy President Putin’s victory because they see in him a great statesman and a friend on whom we can always count and who will watch over our people,” said Milorad Dodik, the head of the Bosnian Serbs.

“Our elder brother has prevailed, which is encouraging for the world,” declared Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.

• The election was referred to as a “farce and parody” by Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. “This Russian presidential election demonstrated how this regime represses civil society, independent media, and opposition,” he declared.