The EU has criticized the State Duma elections.

As the official representative of the European Union's foreign policy service Peter Stano noted, the electoral process allegedly took place in an "atmosphere of intimidation."

“In the run-up to these elections, we witnessed an atmosphere of intimidation against all critical and independent points of view,” he says.

Stano also complained about the alleged lack of independent election observers.

“There were no international independent observers, so it is very difficult to understand how the elections were actually conducted,” he said.

Later, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the EU allegedly received information from independent and reliable sources about serious violations during the elections in the Russian Federation.

Germany, for its part, called for clarification of the situation in connection with "serious reports" of violations in the elections to the State Duma.

“We are talking about very serious reports, according to which there were massive violations,” Deutsche Welle quotes the official representative of the German government, Steffen Seibert.

The State Department also reacted to the holding of elections to the State Duma.

The ministry's statement says that Russia's actions in the framework of this electoral process allegedly contradict the obligations of the Russian Federation, "including within the framework of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as commitments to the OSCE and other international and regional organizations."

The State Department also announced that it does not recognize the holding of elections to the State Duma "on sovereign" Ukrainian territory.

  • US State Department

  • © AP Photo / J.

    Scott Applewhite

In turn, Kiev called the elections to the lower house of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation "with the participation of the population of the occupied territories of Ukraine" "illegitimate."

This was announced by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Brigadier General Kirill Budanov.

According to him, Kiev should "take a number of countermeasures against these so-called elections."

“Engage all organizers and participants of elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine in the operational and investigative development, declare them on the international wanted list, seek their extradition to Ukraine so that they appear before a Ukrainian court.

In addition, to take harsh sanctions against those foreigners who took part in these elections as observers or consultants, ”he said on the official Facebook page of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Later, the Ukrainian Security Service opened a criminal case over the holding of elections to the Russian State Duma in Crimea, the ministry's press service said.

As noted, the case was opened under the article on treason.

In addition to the EU, the US and Ukraine, the UK also criticized the State Duma elections.

In addition, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that it does not recognize the elections to the lower house of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation held in Crimea.

Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova reacted to Stano's statement.

In her Telegram channel, she recalled that in Russia, the elections to the State Duma were monitored by 245 international observers from 59 countries of the world, 10 international organizations and 57 diplomats from diplomatic missions accredited in Moscow, while four observers from three countries were sent to the elections in Germany through OSCE / ODIHR.

“And the European Union calls it“ insufficient ”!

And what if you compare it with the four international observers at the elections in Germany?

So what does the EU think about its members there?

Will they be able to give a "clear assessment" of the elections in Germany?

Or #Is thisOther? ", - noted Zakharova.

On the air of the program "Evening with Vladimir Solovyov" on the TV channel "Russia-1", the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry also stressed that it was the countries of the European Union that, with their premature statements about non-recognition of the results of the elections to the State Duma and threats to impose sanctions, attempted to intimidate Russia.

“When we are told from the European Union about, once again, an atmosphere of intimidation, they are absolutely right: they have created this very atmosphere of intimidation for several years, and immediately on the eve of our elections,” she said.

She recalled the report of the European Parliament released on September 16, which proposed expanding sanctions against Russia.

“Can you think that this report was made on the basis of some facts that appeared on the eve of the elections?

Perhaps we would still be resigned to this.

But this is not so, ”she added.

"Virtually invulnerable"

Recall that the elections to the State Duma of the VIII convocation were held from 17 to 19 September.

Simultaneously with this electoral process, direct elections were held for the heads of nine constituent entities of Russia and 39 regional parliaments.

The Central Election Commission of Russia on September 21 announced that it had processed 100% of the protocols.

United Russia won 49.82% of the vote, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is in second place with 18.93%, and the LDPR is in third place with 7.55%.

Rounding out the top five are "Fair Russia - For Truth" (7.46%) and "New People" (5.32%).

The turnout for the elections to the State Duma was more than 51%.

The CEC called the "minimum for all time" the number of appeals and complaints that were received by the department.

The Kremlin positively assessed the past elections from the point of view of competition, openness and honesty, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

In turn, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, during a meeting with international observers who followed the elections to the State Duma, said that Russia was ready for a professional technical analysis of "all aspects of the election campaign" and attacks on it from a number of Western countries.

“In the end, we find ourselves practically invulnerable to real claims against our electoral system.

The barefaced husk around this will be hung, "he said, stressing that" the theme will be played out "of the absence of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the elections.

Earlier, the OSCE decided not to participate in observing the elections to the State Duma, since Moscow limited the size of the mission due to the threat of the spread of coronavirus infection.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment with such a step taken "unilaterally."

The ministry also noted that they did not receive "a clear explanation of why the parameters, which seemed to have already led to successful monitoring results in the realities of other states, turned out to be inapplicable to the Russian Federation."

After the OSCE's decision, British Permanent Representative to this structure, Neil Bush, said that the United Kingdom shares the organization's disappointment that the restrictions imposed by Moscow will prevent it from presenting Russian voters with a "transparent and authoritative assessment of the upcoming Duma elections."

The United States also reacted to this.

As stated in a statement by State Department spokesman Ned Price, Washington regrets the incident and fully supports the OSCE "in their principled position that they will not be able to effectively observe elections under such restrictions."

  • Counting votes in the elections to the State Duma

  • © REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina

After that, on the eve of the elections to the State Duma, the European Union approved a report on the strategy of relations with Russia, which contains a proposal not to recognize the results of the vote if Brussels considers that it was held in violation of international norms.

"To blacken the organization of the elections"

As Vladimir Olenchenko, a senior researcher at the Center for European Studies of the IMEMO RAS, said in a conversation with RT, despite all the groundless attacks from the countries of the West and Ukraine, it can be stated that the organization of elections to the State Duma was transparent and can serve as an example when conducting similar voting in Western countries.

“The West's desire to somehow denigrate the organization of elections in Russia is due to the fact that these states do not want to devalue their own electoral processes.

We have all seen with what colossal violations the presidential elections were held in the United States, and there are often complaints about voting in European countries.

It is clear from the statements of the Western states that they essentially have nothing to say, but they want to discredit the voting in the Russian Federation so that later they do not deviate from their line of contrived confrontation with Russia, ”the expert said.

Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research, adheres to a similar position.

In an interview with RT, he noted that it is profitable for European structures and Washington to say that Russia had a bad election to the State Duma.

“This is their usual practice.

If they say that the Russian Federation organized the voting well and conducted it well, it would mean that Russia is not as bad as they say in the West.

But this is unacceptable, because Western countries are imposing sanctions against Moscow, and they must motivate them with something.

In fact, statements about allegedly numerous violations are nothing more than words.

Elections in Russia took place in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, ”the analyst said.

At the same time, the statement of the Ukrainian intelligence fits into the "discrediting campaign" launched by the West, Olenchenko believes.

“Ukraine has a difficult internal political situation and a difficult economic situation, and on the horizon is winter, cold, higher prices for housing and communal services.

And here Kiev hopes for a well-known political technique to divert the attention of the population from their mistakes and due to this to stay in power, ”the expert said.

As Bruter emphasized, the categories of citizens listed by the intelligence of Ukraine, in particular residents of Crimea and immigrants from the East of Ukraine, who received Russian passports, have every right to vote in elections to the State Duma.

  • CEC demonstrates preliminary results of elections to the State Duma

  • AGN "Moscow"

  • © Alexander Avilov

“Crimea is an integral part of Russia in accordance with the Russian constitution, all residents of these territories have the same rights as other citizens of the Russian Federation, including those living on the territory of the self-proclaimed republics of the LPR and DPR.

Ukrainian intelligence can pursue anyone, anywhere, but whatever it does on Russian territory will be met with legitimate opposition from Moscow.

Therefore, Ukrainian intelligence officers should be wary of such events, ”the analyst said.

As Bruter summed up, the Western countries and Ukraine can say whatever they want, but they will be forced to de facto recognize the results of the elections to the State Duma.

“And everything else is their internal political kitchen, which has nothing to do with Russia and its elections,” the expert concluded.