Liberals Slam Russian Elections as Fraud
The spokesperson for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group of European Parliament have issued a joint declaration condemning the elections in Russia held over the weekend as "undemocratic."
Kristiina Ojuland issued the declaration with the group's chairman Guy Verhofstadt on December 4, and said the government was fostering a "misleading impression of some sort of freedom of choice.
"The European Union must adopt a clear position with regard to the fact that free and fair elections were not held in order to encourage Russian citizens to demand that human rights and civil liberties are honored and that principles of democracy and the rule of law are followed."
Verhofstadt said that Russia had turned its back on democracy, arguing that the elections were overshadowed by failure to register opposition parties, disproportionate media coverage and blatant large scale fraud.
Ojuland and Verhofstadt called for recognition to be withheld to the Duma delegation to parliamentary bodies and said the European Parliament should rethink its relations with Russia .
Kristopher Rikken