Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has described elections to Russia’s State Duma as a “political show” aimed at strengthening Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
He wrote this on the social network X, as the head of Estonia’s foreign ministry.
According to Tsahkna, ahead of the vote the Russian authorities systematically restricted the participation of opposition forces.
Among the tools of pressure, he cited intimidation, stringent registration requirements, administrative pressure and criminal prosecutions.
Tsahkna said that, in his view, such actions were aimed at keeping power and limiting genuine choice for Russian voters.
The Estonian foreign minister also drew attention to the lack of proper international monitoring.
Earlier, the OSCE reported that Russia had not invited the organisation’s observers to the State Duma elections. The OSCE said this runs counter to Russia’s international commitments and deprives the electoral process of an independent assessment.
Estonia’s foreign minister also condemned the holding of Russian elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
“Estonia strongly condemns the holding of these so-called elections in Ukrainian territories illegally occupied by the Russian Federation,” the minister noted.
Tsahkna stressed that Estonia is working with partners on a co-ordinated response to the holding of the vote in occupied Ukrainian territories.
- Russia’s Central Election Commission announced preliminary results of the “elections” held in Russia and in the occupied territories on 18–20 September. Predictably, the majority of votes were attributed to Putin’s party, United Russia — it was given 57.83% of the vote, more than at the last State Duma elections before the full-scale war in 2021.
- Earlier, the EU condemned Russia’s holding of so-called State Duma elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and said it would not recognise their results.