Kremlin says Russia is consolidated around Putin, dismisses West's criticism

MOSCOW:

The Kremlin said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin's re-election showed the Russian people were consolidated around him and that Moscow was not interested in Washington's criticism as the United States was de-facto at war with Russia in Ukraine.

Putin won 87%, or 76 million votes, by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history, according to official results after nearly all the votes had been counted. Turnout was more than 77%, also the biggest in Russia's post-Soviet history.

"This is the most eloquent confirmation of the level of support from the population of the country for its president, and its consolidation around him," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The White House said the Russian elections were "obviously not free nor fair" as Putin had imprisoned his opponents and prevented others from running against him.

"We strongly disagree with this assessment from the United States," Peskov said.

"Such assessments are expected and predictable, given that de-facto the United States is a country deeply involved in the war in Ukraine. This is a country that is, in fact, at war with us."

"This is not an opinion that we are ready to listen to and that is even important to us."

Peskov said that if the West wanted to talk about the illegitimacy of the Russian election it would be suggesting that the 87% of votes cast for Putin were illegitimate, something he said would be ridiculous.

"This is absurd," Peskov said.

Asked about calls from some Russian opposition activists to declare the Russian election illegitimate, Peskov said that people such as Alexei Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, had lost touch with Russia.

"There are a lot of people who have completely broken away from their homeland. The Yulia Navalnaya that you mentioned is moving more and more into this camp of people," Peskov said.

He said such people "lose their roots, ties with their homeland, lose understanding of their homeland and stop feeling the pulse of their country."