Holding “pseudo-referendums” in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine “would mean that President Putin would continue his imperialist policy, which brought a war to Europe that had never been seen after 1945 on this scale”, said President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Leendert Verbeek on Thursday, 1 September, urging “the Russian authorities to refrain from such plans”.
International NGOs have warned that these “so-called...