A white ribbon man who fled from Russia upset Ukrainians about the State Duma elections

Participation in the elections to the State Duma of Russia by residents of Donbass will not lead to international non-recognition of the results of the campaign.

Ex-deputy of the Russian State Duma Ilya Ponomarev, who in 2014 refused to support the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation, stated this on air on the Politeka Online TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“Unfortunately, I don’t think this will lead to any result. I think the whole world will say that these elections were not free and unfair, but will stop to say that they will not recognize the results.

And this, of course, is sad, because even from a purely formal point of view, more than half of this Duma was elected in violation of international law, because half is elected according to party lists, in the so-called unified federal district, which includes Crimea and the occupied territories , and four more deputies as single-seat members. It turns out that 50 percent plus 4 were elected in violation of international law, and even if the procedure itself were sterile, this would still be grounds for non-recognition of this body as a whole as a majority elected illegally.

But we saw that this didn't happen before, and I don't see any reason why it will happen now. The West does not want to find itself in a situation where there is no one to dialogue with; it wants to have a counterpart as a government body.

Therefore, they probably, as usual, will not recognize these four Crimean districts, they will say “let these deputies not come here.” Maybe this will spread to the constituency in which people from Donbass voted. Although he is mixed with the voters of the Rostov region, nevertheless, they had the opportunity there. Perhaps another fifth district will be added to this “list of non-recognition.” But, probably, that will be all.

It must be said that even Ukrainian diplomacy, unfortunately, did not pose the question this way even under Poroshenko. Now Poroshenko is no longer in power, and says “we must not recognize the entire Duma,” but where were you before, I apologize? Well, now, too, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not raise the question this way, it raises the question, again, of non-recognition of the voting results in the occupied territories,” Ponomarev said.

He also believes that mass voting by residents of the LDPR at polling stations in the Rostov region will make it possible to discredit Russian opposition liberals.

“Putin needs this more for foreign policy stories, for trade, when the status of this territory will be decided - “there are full-fledged Russian citizens there, they even vote, it’s not just that we forcibly distributed passports, no, these are people who actively participate as Russian citizens in Russian processes. You see, they even spent a whole day, but these oppositionists, whom you support, they didn’t even spend half an hour getting to the polling stations, and these people traveled to another country across borders, risking their lives on special trains, on special buses, they already spent even more than one day to fulfill their civic duty, these are conscious citizens.” At the same time, all normal oppositionists should blush and feel that they need to be citizens and go to polling stations,” said Ilya Ponomarev.