EU Vows Sanctions over Russian Duma Vote

The European Union announced on Monday that it would impose sanctions on individuals involved in organizing Russia’s parliamentary elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas confirmed the move in a statement on behalf of all 27 member states.

The sanctions will target organizers of the “sham elections”, candidates who stood in the occupied territories and individuals responsible for undermining the possibility of free and fair elections within Russia. The EU said it would never recognize either the elections held in occupied Ukrainian territory or their results.

The bloc said the State Duma elections demonstrated the “continued and deepening erosion of democracy in Russia”. Russian authorities had intensified systematic repression to exclude democratic opposition forces from challenging the status quo.

The EU also highlighted the exclusion of Yabloko candidates from the federal list, describing the party as one of Russia’s last remaining opposition forces and the only one with an anti-war platform.

Independent analysts and observers reported extensive misuse of administrative and judicial resources to eliminate opponents of the war and restrict access to independent information, according to the EU.

The bloc also criticized Moscow for failing to invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), saying this denied Russian voters an impartial and independent assessment of the elections.

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