The first reason is you — the current and still president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who during more than 20 years of his power has turned into a dictator, grossly violated all the norms of international law, and unleashed an invasive war in Europe. This is a “man” who has systematically and purposefully killed his opponents over the past years. The list of victims of murders committed by Putin includes Galina Starovoitova (1998), Anna Politkovskaya (2006), Alexander Litvinenko (2006), Sergei Magnitsky (2009), Boris Berezovsky (2013), Boris Nemtsov (2015). The last case of his criminal activities was the cynical murder of Navalny. Putin’s dictatorial ambitions are a threat to global democracy. The continuation and further legitimation of his power in the international arena creates a precedent for other dictators to continue on the path of murder, war and genocide. His example inspires representatives of the ultra-right forces to establish neo-Nazi political regimes.
Recognition of Putin’s election results is a legitimation of a multiple murder, a justification for the murders of his political opponents.
The second reason is Putin’s dreams of undermining global stability by the first illegal occupations and large-scale military conflicts in Europe since Hitler’s time, the restoration of a Soviet-era empire, the weakening of the EU, the collapse of NATO, the restoration of Russian military and political influence on the European continent in the form of a new Warsaw Pact. Mechanisms of military and hybrid aggression, primarily in Central and South-Eastern Europe are widely used for these purposes.
The third reason is the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) by Russia. Like Transnistria, these territories are not the subject to international law. They do not know about democracy here. Violence and lawlessness dominates in the TOT. Recognition of such elections would mean a rejection of the main principles of democracy, moral capitulation of the West, recognition of Putin’s dictatorial regime as a normal European value, worthy of imitation and inheritance.
The fourth reason is coercion. The Russian occupation authorities, using blackmail, intimidation, and forced passportization in the temporarily occupied territories, force people to vote; this farce at gunpoint has nothing to do with the electoral process.
The fifth is a crime. The illegal occupation of part of Ukraine, the presence of Russian troops in Bucha, Borodianka, Irpin, Mariupol, Kherson, other cities of Ukraine, on the left bank of the Kherson region, parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions was accompanied by numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Recognizing the elections means legitimizing the crimes committed by Russia.
The international community should not recognize the results of the presidential elections in the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia. Personal sanctions should be imposed on the organizers of the pseudo-election process.
Ion Grosu