The West itself guaranteed Vladimir Putin’s historic victory in the Russian presidential election by ensuring that NATO is perceived in the country as a dangerous enemy, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
The German Foreign Ministry called Russia's presidential election “neither free nor fair,” adding that its “result surprises no one,” a claim echoed by the White House on Sunday. Meanwhile, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused President Vladimir Putin – who has won by a landslide – of “stealing another election,” but vowed that the Russian leader “will not steal Ukraine.”
Putin has secured 87.3% of the vote with almost all ballots counted, winning his fifth term in office amid a record-high turnout of over 74%, according to the Central Election Commission. Writing on Telegram on Sunday, Zakharova rebuffed Western accusations, suggesting that Western states and Berlin in particular simply could not tolerate the display of Russian unity.
Zakharova also recalled that Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor four times in a row while ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl also stayed in power for 16 years.
“The Germans themselves wondered whether such authoritarian personalism was in line with the German understanding of democracy,” Zakharova wrote.
The spokeswoman noted that the only thing she could agree on with Berlin, about the election in Russia, was that there was “nothing surprising” about its results.
NATO barks at our country several times a day, threatens it, ignites conflicts along our borders… It’s no surprise that the whole country united and fought back!
In a separate post, she responded to the UK defence secretary's claim that Putin “stole” the election, saying that Russia had stolen nothing, unlike the West.
“We didn’t give anything of ours to them. So they got angry. They are accustomed to taking everything away from everyone by the right of ‘exclusivity’,” Zakharova said.