‘The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia,’ EU foreign policy chief Kallas says. Brussels pledges new sanctions after State Duma elections.
The European Union is preparing new sanctions against Russia over its recent elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament. The measures will target election organizers and candidates who ran in Ukraine’s occupied territories, as well as anyone Brussels considers responsible for undermining free elections inside Russia, the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a declaration published on the Council of the EU’s website.
The EU stated the September 18–20 vote demonstrated “the continued and deepening erosion of democracy in Russia,” noting that the exclusion of Yabloko candidates further narrowed the choices available to Russian voters. Yabloko remains “one of the last remaining opposition forces and the only party with an anti-war platform,” according to the EU statement.
“The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia,” Kallas said.
Separately, Brussels stated it does not recognize the vote or its results in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions:
These so-called “elections” represent yet another blatant violation by Russia of international law, including the UN Charter, and of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The statement also noted that Russia did not invite OSCE observers to monitor the elections, denying voters an independent, impartial assessment of the vote.
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