MEP Kalniete: Russia's Regime Must Be Fully Isolated

The European Parliament (EP) is to vote today on a resolution that would declare the State Duma elections held in Russia undemocratic and condemn them. The document calls for the Russian regime to be politically and diplomatically isolated for as long as necessary. The news agency LETA was informed by Elīna Bīviņa, assistant to MEP Sandra Kalniete (Unity).

The resolution was prepared on the initiative of the European People's Party group. Kalniete, the Parliament's lead rapporteur on Russia, headed its drafting. It provides for excluding representatives of the regime from international forums and for preventing any normalisation of Russian participation in international sporting and cultural events.

Elections below democratic standards

Kalniete stresses that Vladimir Putin's dictatorship has held the most repressive State Duma elections in history. In her view, they can hardly be called elections: political opposition is banned, protests are criminalised, media and propaganda are fully controlled, voter turnout data has been falsified, "dead souls" appear on lists of those who voted, and independent international election monitoring no longer exists.

Occupied territories and security risks

During EP debates, the MEP urged journalists and international institutions not to use election terminology for what took place in occupied Ukrainian territory. She noted that "elections" staged by the occupation authorities in territory seized by force violate international human rights and Ukraine's sovereignty. For that reason, the EP must not recognise the newly elected State Duma as a legitimate representative and legislative body of Russia. She also called on the Council of Europe and member states to refuse to recognise its legitimacy.

She reminded colleagues that another mobilisation has begun in Russia and that attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure have intensified, aiming to break the Ukrainian people in winter. She cited the newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets, one of Russia's main propaganda outlets, which acknowledged that "Putin won in a new national referendum on support for the war".

"In the European Union we must be ready to increase support for Ukraine, we must be ready to defend ourselves. Because the Kremlin will continue to threaten our democracy and peace," the politician said.

Sanctions

The resolution urges EU member states to impose sanctions on those responsible for political persecution and fabricated cases against representatives of Russian civil society. It also targets everyone who organised or ran the elections, stood in them, claimed to represent temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory, or acted there as "observers".