Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 21 September 2016: Western international community does not recognize the results of Duma’s elections in the annexed Crimea

Western powers have reacted negatively after the Russian Parliamentary elections, which took place on September 18. Almost unanimously, European and American leaders refused to recognize the validity of the election results either as a whole or as regards the Duma deputies elected from Crimea. On September 20, the spokesperson of EU High Representative Federica Mogherini firmly declared that, given the limited permission of monitoring elections Moscow gave to the EU and OSCE/ODIHR observers, which excluded the territory of Crimea, elected deputies from the illegally annexed territories “will be treated in accordance with the policy of non-recognition by the EU”.

The United States, Canada, France, Sweden and Germany also do not recognize the legitimacy of the elections in the Crimean Peninsula. German Ambassador in Kyiv Ernst Reichel similarly stated that “the German government does not recognize the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol which is illegal under the International law, and therefore, does not recognize the elections to the Russian State Duma held in Crimea. For this reason, the Federal Government did not send observers to the OSCE / ODIHR in Crimea. Together with our EU partners, the Federal Government supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

More drastically, Polish Foreign Ministry has questioned the legitimacy of the elections as a whole.

This electoral round confirms the President’s United Russia as the first party with 54% of preferences, followed by the Communist Party with 13 %. Other two parties, the Liberal-Democratic (13%) and “A Just Russia” Party (6%) have passed the electoral threshold of 5%.As in previous Duma elections in 2011, in which Putin’s party won with 49% of preferences, the result allows him to control the lower chamber with 343 seats out of 450. However, turnout has been amongst the lower in recent Russia’s history with barely 48% of affluence. The biggest Russian cities such as Moscow and S. Petersburg faced a turnout around 30 %, a half of that at previous parliamentary elections. In the annexed regions, Crimean Tatars, for example, literally ignored the election call.