Canada’s overseas minister has slammed Vladimir Putin’s re-election in Russia as a “flawed electoral process.”
“While he may celebrate today,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly stated in a statement Monday, “history will judge Putin poorly for his authoritarianism, war and the illegal attempted annexation of the territory of a neighbouring country.”
After years of eroding and sidestepping Russia’s structure, Putin secured his fifth time period as president in a contest consultants say was mounted months upfront.
Putin has led Russia as president or, briefly, as prime minister since 1999. By the time his newest time period expires in 2030 (at which level he’s anticipated to illegitimately safe one other six years within the Kremlin), he can have dominated longer that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and would be the longest-serving Russian chief because the 18th-century Tsarina Catherine the Great.
“Sadly for the Russian people, Putin has constructed a political system in which human rights are denied. His opponents are arrested and silenced, a free media does not operate and citizens are denied genuine political options,” Joly stated.
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She additionally condemned studies of Russian troopers forcing folks in occupied Ukraine to vote, calling it a “blatant breach of international law.”
She joined a refrain of democratic world leaders additionally denouncing the election outcomes.
“Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy,” British overseas affairs minister and former prime minister David Cameron stated.
A spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated Russia “is now a dictatorship and is ruled by Vladimir Putin in an authoritarian manner.”
The Kremlin dismissed any criticism, saying Putin profitable 87 per cent of the vote reveals the Russian persons are consolidating round him.
Experts beforehand informed Global News Putin held the election to retain a sheen of legitimacy and the vote’s end result was predetermined.
Putin’s two fundamental rivals, warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and lawyer Alexei Navalny, have died throughout the previous yr. Critics and world leaders say Putin is accountable, although the Kremlin has denied all allegations.
Thousands of individuals throughout Russia lined up at midday on Sunday at their respective polling stations as an indication of protest, responding to a name to motion by Navalny earlier than he died in an Arctic jail colony final month.
Putin named Navalny for the primary time in months in his victory speech, saying he had been able to change the democracy advocate in a prisoner swap when Navalny died.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean chief Kim Jong Un and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi congratulated Putin.
— with information from The Associated Press’ Emma Burrows, Dasha Litvinova and Jim Heintz and Reuters’ Matthias Williams, John Irish, Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
