On Monday 19 March, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) criticised the "violations and shortcomings" observed at the presidential elections in Russia the previous day. The elections were won by Vladimir Putin.
"We expect Russia to address the violations and shortcomings" reported by the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, "as they run against Russia's OSCE commitments and other international obligations", the EEAS spokesperson stated in a press release.
The EEAS sets out the detail of all the shortcomings, based on the mission's preliminary conclusions. "The elections were conducted in an overly controlled legal and political environment, marked by continued pressure on critical voices", the spokesperson stated. And the OSCE/ODIHR mission recorded "restrictions on freedoms of assembly, association and expression, as well as on candidate registration, which limited the space for political engagement, resulting in a lack of genuine competition".
The EEAS added: "extensive and uncritical coverage of the incumbent (Ed: Vladimir Putin) by the media resulted in an uneven playing field (...) and a number of activists who questioned the legitimacy of the elections were detained".
Similarly, while the elections were administered openly by the Central Electoral Commission, shortcomings related to vote secrecy and transparency of counting were observed.
In addition, the EEAS spokesperson reiterated that the EU did not recognise the holding of elections in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia.
Juncker calls on Putin to cooperate on security
On Tuesday 20 March, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Putin cautiously on his re-election, wishing him success in his "major responsibilities". He hoped the Russian president would use his fourth mandate to "re-establish a pan-European security order". "I will always be a partner in this effort", he promised.
Putin was elected in the first round of the elections with 76% of the votes. His mandate is for six years and he came ahead of Pavel Grudinin from the Communist Party (11.8%) and hard-line nationalist Vladimir Jirinovski (5.66%). Putin improved his result of 2012, when he was elected with 63.3% of the vote. In Crimea, he won over 90% of the vote. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)