“Transparent propaganda exercise”
Berlin criticizes Putin’s “sham elections” in occupied territories
09/08/2023, 11:25 am
Last year, the Kremlin decided to annex four Ukrainian territories. And so that everything goes well, they should take part in the so-called regional elections. The Foreign Office in Berlin is outraged: “We do not recognize Russia’s attempted land grab,” it says.
The Foreign Office has condemned the local and regional elections currently taking place in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. The “sham elections” are “nothing more than a transparent propaganda exercise,” the Foreign Ministry explained on Friday on the online service X, formerly Twitter. “We do not recognize Russia’s attempted land grab,” it said.
Local and regional elections are currently taking place in the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Luhansk. Russia announced the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions in September 2022, despite strong condemnation from Western states. Votes known as “referendums” had previously been held there and were not internationally recognized.
Then as now, Russia controls only part of the four claimed regions. Overall, Russia occupies almost 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. These include the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, a large part of the Luhansk region and parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
New governors, regional parliaments and city councils will also be elected in many regions of Russia by Sunday. There is no real opposition represented, and critical voices are systematically suppressed, particularly with regard to the offensive against Ukraine. The most prominent Russian opposition figures are either in prison or in exile. Opposition channels and newspapers were closed.