Chinese language President Xi Jinping despatched a congratulatory notice to Putin, in keeping with China’s state outlet Xinhua Information, wherein he famous that there are nice issues forward for Russia underneath Putin’s management.
Beijing’s hearty congratulations — echoed by Kremlin buddies in North Korea, Belarus, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Azerbaijan — arrived after Putin triumphed within the rigged election, touchdown 87 % of the vote as he tightens his grip on Russian society.
The election marketing campaign, wherein Putin confronted no real opposition, was marked by the demise of Russian dissident chief Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony and the Kremlin’s forces making gradual however regular progress on the battlefield in jap Ukraine.
Whereas Putin’s buddies and allies have been fast to congratulate him, high Western officers have been lower than impressed at his trampling on the final vestiges of Russian democracy.
In a video on X, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the “Russian dictator” is “merely sick for energy and is doing every little thing to rule without end.”
The EU’s high diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the “unlawful holding of so-called ‘elections’ within the territories of Ukraine that Russia has briefly occupied,” and stressing that the EU won’t ever acknowledge these votes.