Unelected EU official fumes over Russian election

The bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, ignored the 1,600 drones launched by Ukraine as over 60 million people cast their ballots EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has lashed out at the results of Russia’s parliamentary election, dismissing it as a “veneer of democracy. ” The senior EU official, a noted Russia hawk who was appointed, not elected, to her post in 2024, made no mention of the 1,600 drones Ukraine launched into Russia during the vote. Her claims of democratic dysfunction did not include Ukraine’s own indefinitely suspended elections, but stuck to a vote whereby some 60 million people cast ballots across 11 time zones. In a post on X on Monday, Kallas targeted the three-day elections in which the ruling United Russia party retained a commanding parliamentary majority with nearly 58% of the party-list vote, well ahead of its rivals, according to preliminary results.

Turnout exceeded 59% from 51. 7% in 2021, according to Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova. Kremlin reacts to Ukraine’s attack on Russian elections Kallas claimed that “the so-called Duma elections marked another major setback for Russian democracy,” adding that “their outcome was never in doubt. ” She further accused Moscow of silencing its critics, stressing that “the veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia. ” Kallas also claimed to have “proposed measures against those facilitating these sham elections in occupied Ukrainian territories. ” The EU said separately that it would never recognize voting held in Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions – all of which voted to join Russia in public referendums in 2014 and 2022. Russia votes: Ruling party on course to secure majority after millions cast ballots Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK issued…