The use of European politicians to legitimize President Vladimir Putin's rule has become complicated, but the Russian government continues to find ways to do so. In a report published on Friday, April 26th, the German NGO European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) has identified 183 foreign “international The identity of “observers and experts” was revealed. President Putin was elected to his fifth term. The European Parliament has described it as “illegal and undemocratic” and on February 16, opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison.
Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Putin regime has sought to justify to the Russian people and the international community its violations of international law (territorial annexation) and the corruption of democratic rules (electoral fraud). Media personnel have been invited to Russia. The same goes for the community. Invited foreign dignitaries are portrayed in Russian media as “democratically'' supporting the Kremlin's actions. In the 2018 presidential election, French observers included former Ambassador to Moscow Jean Cadet, National Party (far-right) MP Gilbert Collard, Independent Democratic Party (centre-right) senator Joel Guerriot, then Republican They included former lawmaker Thierry Mariani. (right).
At the same time, Russian authorities are gradually reducing their tolerance for independent and qualified observers, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), of which Russia is a member. The last presidential election involved a high degree of fraud (media censorship, exclusion and suppression of real opposition, careful selection of “rival candidates”, last-minute voter security checks, stuffing of ballot boxes and ballot papers). falsification) was carried out. As a result, all independent monitoring was banned while the Kremlin organized sham surveillance.
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With the support of Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC), 1,115 “international observers and experts” from 129 countries were invited to participate in the production. “We are aware of cases in which observers were contacted by fake NGOs, the Citizens Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Federation Council,” EPDE Board Chair Stephanie Schiffer reported. The report could not say whether the observers received compensation from Russia, but Schiffer said he was at least able to get his travel expenses reimbursed, citing the example of a German guest who was a local councilor who declared his expenses reimbursed. I suspect that it may have happened.
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