Xi Jinping, the Chinese President has congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning another term as Russia’s President.
Chinese stated media reported Xi as saying that Putin’s re-election is a full demonstration of the support of the Russian people for him.
Xi voiced, “I believe that under your leadership, Russia will certainly be able to achieve greater achievements in national development and construction.”
Also, Xi noted that China was set to maintain close communication with Russia to promote their partnership.
“China attaches great importance to the development of China-Russia relations and stands ready to maintain close communication with Russia to promote the sustained, healthy, stable and in-depth development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.”
Xi Jinping
In addition, Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian disclosed that Xi and Putin “will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold longstanding good-neighbourly friendship and deepen comprehensive strategic coordination.”
China has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past few years, with the two countries having declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Other Russian allies also congratulated Putin.
Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik stated, “The Serb people welcomed with joy the victory of President Putin for they see in him a great statesman and a friend on whom we can always count and who will watch over our people.”
Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, said, “Our older brother has triumphed, which bodes well for the world.”
Meanwhile, Western leaders denounced the Russian election.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dismissed the result as illegitimate.
“Everyone in the world understands that this person, like many others throughout history, has become sick with power and will stop at nothing to rule forever.
“There is no evil he would not do to maintain his personal power. And no one in the world would have been safeguarded from this.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, noted, “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”
In a statement, UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, remarked, “These Russian elections starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war.”
He asserted, “Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy.”
Cameron added that holding elections in Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia “is an abhorrent violation of the UN Charter and Ukrainian sovereignty” stating that those regions “will always be Ukrainian.”
Earlier, Cameron, said the “illegal” elections featured “a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring”, adding: “This is not what free and fair elections look like.”
Moreover, the EU said the Russian election took place in a highly restricted environment “exacerbated by Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The EU stressed that it regretted the decision of Russian authorities not to invite international observers to its elections.
“This runs contrary to Russia’s commitments and has denied Russia’s voters and institutions an impartial and independent assessment of these elections,” the bloc said in a joint statement.
It also said that “so-called elections” held in the territories of Ukraine that Russia has temporarily occupied were “null and void.”
Putin Lauds Russian Relation With China
According to Russian state media, Putin heaped praise on key ally Beijing.
It reported that Putin was “sure that in the coming years we will only strengthen and build up our relations and achieve common successes for the benefit of the Chinese and Russian people.”
“The most important thing is the coincidence of state interests. This creates a very good tone for solving common problems in the field of international relations,” Putin was reported as saying.
He added, “The structure of China’s economy is changing towards innovation. We face exactly the same tasks in Russia.”
