State Department: Congratulatory Calls For Putin Coming From U.S.

Western governments called the "elections" in Russia unfair and undemocratic.

"it certainly was an undemocratic process," Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State described the electoral events in Russia that ended the day before, as a result of which Vladimir Putin was "re-elected" for a new term, Voice of America reports.

“I think it is safe to say that there certainly won’t be any congratulatory calls coming from the United States of America,” Patel said.

Western governments called the "elections" in Russia unfair and undemocratic. India, China and North Korea congratulated the Kremlin leader on extending his rule for another six years.

The contrasting reactions highlighted a geopolitical rift that has deepened since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering the deepest crisis in relations between the West and Moscow since the end of the Cold War.

Arriving in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers sharply condemned the results of the "elections" as a fiction, after which they agreed on sanctions against persons involved in the ill-treatment of Alexei Navalny, who recently died in a Russian prison.

“The elections in Russia were elections without choice,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said opening the meeting.

Former oligarch and well-known Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky called on Western governments not to recognize Putin's electoral victory.

"Now it's about... finally publicly recognizing Putin as illegitimate," Khodorkovsky said, speaking to journalists in Berlin.

"We have high hopes for Western society, which we ask to appeal to their governments with a request not to recognize Putin as legitimate," Khodorkovsky stressed. “When the heads of Western states and governments shake hands with Putin, this is a very strong legitimization of Putin within the country. "

A former oil tycoon, Khodorkovsky spent ten years in prison after challenging Putin early in his reign.

Meanwhile, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini distanced himself from the critical reaction of Western leaders to Putin's re-election.

“They (the Russians) voted and we recognize that,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Milan.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, leader of the centrist Forza Italia party and Deputy Prime Minister, like Salvini, stressed that the presidential elections in Russia were “neither free nor fair.”

Responding to a question about Salvini's statements, Tajani recalled: "Italy's foreign policy position is the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Putin and said Beijing would maintain close ties with Moscow to promote the “no-restrictions” partnership they agreed on in 2022, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he hoped to strengthen New Delhi's "time-tested special and privileged strategic partnership" with Moscow.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whom the West accuses of supplying weapons to Russia, also congratulated Putin.

In Africa, some publications regarded Putin's "re-election" as strengthening the positions of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

These three states of the Sahel region have strengthened ties with Russia after the coups of recent years to the detriment of their traditional allies – France and the United States.

The State Department condemned the holding of sham elections in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and stressed that the United States would never recognize their results.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller recalled the death of Navalny, the exclusion of candidates from voting, as well as the long-term suppression of freedom of speech and other civil liberties by the Russian authorities.