During a plenary session debate on Wednesday 10 April, representatives of the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and Greens/EFA groups condemned the Russian presidential elections that were held between 15 and 17 March. In particular, they all condemned the holding of the ballot in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.
Bernard Guetta (Renew Europe, French) said that Vladimir Putin was a president “again and again", but that he was not the “elected president of the Russian people”.
Rasa Juknevičienė (EPP, Lithuanian) called on leaders of the “democratic world” not to call Mr Putin “president”. She claimed that there had not been a democratic election in Russia for a long time. “Stop being afraid of Putin, let him be afraid of us! We need an ambitious coalition to defeat Putin and his regime, of the type created to defeat Hitler”, she argued.
Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, German) said that the EU should make it “clear” that the vote was “a farce, illegitimate”. He called for increased aid to Ukraine and for everything to be done to support the “ courageous” Russian opposition and “save those who are in prison for political reasons”.
For Eero Heinäluoma (S&D, Finnish), this “semblance of an election must ensure that Europeans stand by the Ukrainians even more”. “The transformation of Russia must come from within (...) We need a new, free Russia with which we can have a good diplomatic relationship”, he stressed.
For his part, the High Representative of the Union, Josep Borrell, pointed out that a sanctions regime dedicated to Russia was currently under discussion between the Member States, hoping to adopt it “as soon as possible”.
On 18 March, in a statement on behalf of the EU27, he described the Russian election environment as “very restricted” (see EUROPE 13373/3). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)