France believes that “the conditions for a free election have not been met”

“The conditions for a free, pluralist and democratic election have once again not been met.” France announced, Monday March 18, that it “takes note of the expected result of the presidential election” Russian, largely won by Vladimir Putin, and deplores the conditions of a vote in which the opposition was excluded. According to the Russian election commission, Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a fifth term with a score “record” of 87.29% of the votes, after counting 99.75% of the ballots.

“The electoral process in Russia took place in the context of increased repression against civil society and any form of opposition to the regime, ever-increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and ‘ban on the operation of independent media’, denounces the Quai d’Orsay. France “salutes the courage of the many Russian citizens who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights”.

French diplomacy also regrets that the election took place “outside any impartial international observation”. Paris “further condemns the organization by Russia of so-called ‘elections’ in the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia: in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as in part of the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.”