The European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s March presidential election as illegitimate, Ukrinform reported on April 25.

Russian authorities held a presidential election between March 15-17 in Russia as well as regions of occupied Ukraine. The three-day election resulted in 87.2% of the vote going toward Putin. It was widely viewed as neither free nor fair, and many Western leaders declined to offer their congratulations to Putin, instead opting to criticize the circumstances in which the election was held.

Ukriniform reports that the European Parliament’s resolution calls on member states of the European Union and the international community not to recognize the results of the presidential elections in Russia as legitimate because they were held in “illegally occupied territories of Ukraine and even inside Russia, they were neither free nor fair, nor did they meet basic international election standards, and therefore lacked democratic legitimacy.”

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