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A zinger from Charles Michel! Yes, really.
The European Council president congratulated Vladimir Putin on his big win in the Russian presidential election — just as three days of voting began Friday.
“Would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today,” Michel snarked on social media. “No opposition. No freedom. No choice.”
Russians headed to the polls Friday for the first day of voting in a rigged election that Putin is almost certain to win, granting him another six years in power.
The Russian president, who spent years cracking down on any form of dissent against his rule, is expected to face off against three candidates who have voluntarily abstained from criticizing him. The only two significant anti-war opposition candidates, Ekaterina Duntsova and Boris Nadezhdin, have been disqualified.
Russia’s grassroots opposition has organized mass participation of voters at polling stations at noon on Sunday in a show of protest at Putin’s longtime reign over Russia.
Putin was first elected as Russian president in 2000 and — other than a break when he took on the role of prime minister between 2008 and 2012 — has held the top job ever since. In February 2022, he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, upending Europe’s security landscape.
