The West is disgusted with Vladimir Putin securing himself another six-year term leading Russia.
Senior European officials on Monday described the Russian vote as a “farce” and underlining the “depth of repression” in Russia.
China, however, absolutely loves it.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory note to Putin, according to China’s state outlet Xinhua News, in which he noted that there are great things ahead for Russia under Putin’s leadership.
Beijing’s hearty congratulations — echoed by Kremlin buddies in North Korea, Belarus, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Azerbaijan — arrived after Putin triumphed in the rigged election, landing 87 percent of the vote as he tightens his grip on Russian society.
The election campaign, in which Putin faced no genuine opposition, was marked by the death of Russian dissident leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony and the Kremlin’s forces making slow but steady progress on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
While Putin’s friends and allies were quick to congratulate him, top Western officials were less than impressed at his trampling on the last vestiges of Russian democracy.
In a video on X, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the “Russian dictator” is “simply sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever.”
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the “illegal holding of so-called ‘elections’ in the territories of Ukraine that Russia has temporarily occupied,” and stressing that the EU will never recognize those votes.
EU countries including Germany, France and Italy also questioned the election’s legitimacy.
France said the vote took place amid “repression” and hailed the “many” Russians who demonstrated their opposition. Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the “elections were neither free nor fair,” while Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called them a “farce and parody.”
The U.S. and the U.K. also described the vote in blunt terms.
“Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him,” said John Kirby, White House national security spokesperson.
“These Russian elections starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement.
In 2018, the last time Putin was reelected, European leaders were much more willing to congratulate him, despite Moscow’s ongoing aggression in eastern Ukraine and the recent Russian assassination attempt on a double agent in England.
“I cordially congratulate you on your re-election as president of Russia,” read the well wishes from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron also gave Putin personal telephone calls.
This time around, Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson said the current German chancellor would absolutely not be offering any congratulations.
But Putin’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine and thinly veiled nuclear threats have changed the West’s calculus in the meantime.
The only half-hearted congratulations came from Italy’s right-wing League leader, Matteo Salvini, who noted Monday: “In Russia they voted, we take note of it, when a people votes they are always right.”