Madam Chairperson, 

The participating States have committed themselves that the will of the people, freely and fairly expressed through periodic and genuine elections is the basis of the authority and legitimacy of all governments.

However, not in the case of the Russian Federation.

Moscow has long ago exploited the electoral procedures to interfere into internal affairs of sovereign states and undermine their territorial integrity. The list is long, including the sham referendum in Crimea in 2014 and referendum on the constutional amendments in 2020.     

The latest elections to the Russian State Duma are no exception.

We reiterate that involvement of residents living in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine’s Crimea and Donbas, Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region as well as in Transnistria, Moldova, constitutes gross violation of fundamental norms of international law and Russia’s commitments within the OSCE, including the Helsinski Final Act.

The same applies to the mere fact of holding such so-called “elections” in the territories under the Russian temporary occupation.  

This significantly distorts the results of the elections and calls into question legitimacy of the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in whole. 

Ukraine reaffirms its unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and Moldova within their internationally recognized borders.

Ukraine urges the Russian Federation to finally fulfil all its obligations under international law, especially with regard to respect for territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states in the region.

Excellencies, 

One of the key lesson learnt from the past has been the necessity to enhance the parliamentarism, which is among the fundamental pillars of democratic society, thus, ensuring check and balances and making the government to live up to interests of people.   

Another lesson is that a rubber-stump parliament leads to autocracy and abuses on behalf of those in power.  

Let me remind that on March 1, 2014, the Federal Council of the Russian Federation, upper chamber of the Russian parliament, upon the request of president Putin voted to authorize the intervention into Ukraine. Although this decision had been formally revoked, however, the Russian troops have not been withdrawn from the Ukrainian territory, so far.

Unfortunately, the latest elections in Russia looks like a culmination of Moscow’s campaign of silencing of any dissenting voice that could internally oppose aggressive foreign policy of Kremlin. 

I thank you, Madam Chairperson.