The Kremlin stated, this Monday (18), that the re-election of Vladimir Putin showed that the Russian people are consolidated around the president.
The Russian government even said that the country is not interested in criticism from Washington, as the United States was in fact at war with Russia in Ukraine.
Putin won 87%, or 76 million votes, in what is by far the biggest victory in the history of post-Soviet Russia, according to official results after almost all votes were counted.
Turnout was over 77%, also the highest in Russia's post-Soviet history.
“This is the most eloquent confirmation of the level of support of the country's population for its president and its consolidation around him,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The White House said the Russian elections were “obviously neither free nor fair” as Putin imprisoned his opponents and prevented others from running against him.
“We strongly disagree with this assessment by the United States,” Peskov said.
“These assessments are expected and predictable, given that in fact the United States is a country deeply involved in the war in Ukraine. This is a country that is, in fact, at war with us”, he added.
“This is not an opinion we are ready to hear or that is important to us,” he concluded.
Peskov said that if the West wanted to talk about the illegitimacy of the Russian elections it would be suggesting that 87% of the votes cast for Putin were illegitimate, something he said would be ridiculous.
“This is nonsense,” said Peskov.
Asked about calls by some Russian opposition activists to declare the Russian elections illegitimate, Peskov said people like Alexei Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, had lost contact with Russia.
“There are many people who have completely separated themselves from their homeland. The Yulia Navalnaya you mentioned is moving more and more into this camp of people,” Peskov said.
He said that these people “lose their roots, their ties with their homeland, they lose their understanding of their homeland and they stop feeling the pulse of their country.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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