White House: The reality is that Putin is the President of Russia

According to the administration of the President of the United States, Russia's so-called presidential election did not meet "any kind of benchmark of being free or fair".

Source: US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at a briefing, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "The reality is that President Putin is the President of Russia. We’ve had to deal with that reality throughout the war in Ukraine, throughout the other aggression Russia has undertaken, throughout the other steps contrary to U.S. national interests that we have seen from this President and from the Russian Federation under his leadership," he noted.

According to Sullivan, the United States will continue to deal with this reality, which does not negate the fact that these "elections" cannot be considered free or fair.

"Nothing about the election outcome was unpredictable because Putin had closed the political space, had locked up political opponents. Some of his political opponents had tragically died. And so, there was nothing free or fair about this election, and the outcome was preordained," Sullivan concluded.

Several Eastern European countries and the UK have stated that the Russian "elections" cannot be considered free and fair, and the UK Minister of Defence has compared Putin to Stalin.

The European Union criticised the "presidential elections" in Russia, which were subject to numerous restrictions, saw no participation of real opposition candidates, and included votes cast in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, strongly condemned Russia's decision to open polling stations in all occupied Ukrainian territories, describing it as yet another violation of international law.

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