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Russian election latest: West condemns Russian election but China and India back Putin's win - BBC News Russian election latest: West condemns Russian election but China and India back Putin's win - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Laura GozziLaura Gozzi
Europe reporterEurope reporter
Russian media are sharing photos from central Moscow, where a concert to mark the 10-year anniversary of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea is about to take place.
Western countries have The event will also mark President Putin's electoral victory.
dismissed the results of Russia's election. Crowds are reportedly gathering near Red Square amid a heavy police presence.
Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign Several popular Telegram channels have reported that university students were bussed into Moscow for the event.
affairs chief, has said on behalf of the bloc that the election took place This isn't a new development.
amid systematic repression. Several EU countries, including France and Germany, have outright said they would not congratulate President Putin. The Kremlin cares about the optics of such events, and so busloads of students or factory workers from the provinces are often sent to Moscow in order to ensure that "patriotic rallies" like today's are well-attended.
And so, Putin will have
to look way beyond Europe if he wants to hear words of praise for the stunning
electoral victory the Kremlin maintains he has won.
Beijing congratulated
Putin early on. China's President Xi Jinping has said the election's result "fully
reflects the support of the Russian people".
The presidents of Iran
and Belarus have called Putin's victory "decisive" and
"stunning" respectively.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and
Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel were similarly gushing, as were all the leaders of the central Asian countries with whom Russia maintains a close relationship.
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