The result of the Russian election was no surprise, and neither is the list of foreign leaders who lined up to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his victory.
Among those praising Putin’s win: Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and Cuban leader Raul Castro.
“The Russian people’s exceptional trust in you is a natural outcome of your outstanding national performance,” Assad said, according to AFP.
Putin received a record-breaking 76 percent of the vote, Russian media reported, with 67 percent turnout. The Russian leader has held power as president or prime minister since 1999 and will now have another six-year term.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping congratulated Putin and said that “China is interested in continuously developing ties with Russia.” Iranian president Hassan Rouhani also praised the “decisive victory.” “I am sure that during your new term, relations between our two countries will develop further,” he said.
Opposition activists criticized Putin’s ‘victory,’ noting that the long-time Russian leader did not face any real competition and that the election itself saw violations.
“Assad, Maduro, Xi Jinping, Castro, Nazarbayev, and Lukashenko have congratulated Putin on his ‘victory,’” Vladimir Kara-Murza, the vice-chairman of Open Russia, said in a tweet. “That is real legitimacy.”
On his ballot, Kara-Murza wrote “NEMTSOV,” the opposition leader who was gunned down just outside the Kremlin three years ago. Russian authorities also barred opposition leader Alexei Navalny from joining the race. He, in turn, called for an election boycott.
Моего кандидата здесь нет, его убили. pic.twitter.com/vyrmfq847L
— Vladimir Kara-Murza (@vkaramurza) March 18, 2018
“Rigged long before the first vote was even cast,” Kara-Murza said of the election. “Nemtsov killed, Navalny barred. It’s not difficult to win an election when your opponents are not on the ballot.”
Sunday’s election reportedly saw a range of voting irregularities, including ballot stuffing and pressure from employers to vote. A top Russian election official said that this year there were “at least two times fewer” violations than in 2012, according to the Associated Press.
Western leaders have offered restrained responses to Putin’s re-election and hearkened back to the Kremlin’s destabilizing activities. France’s Emmanuel Macron phoned Putin to offer his wishes to the Russian people and used the time to address his concerns about Syria.
Tensions between Russia and the West have spiked in recent weeks after a former Russian spy in the U.K. was poisoned with a nerve agent. The U.S. has joined the U.K. in placing the blame for the attack on the Kremlin.
“If we don’t take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used,” Trump’s United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley said last week at a Security Council meeting. “The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable.”
Putin’s re-election also comes after the Trump administration announced long-awaited sanctions against Russian entities and individuals over 2016 election interference.
