“My advice was not to do it,” he said.
“I suppose most member states will not participate.”
Borrell also recalled that the International Criminal Court
(ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, and the so-called “presidential
elections” in Russia were “neither fair nor just.”
It would be “difficult for Ukrainians and many people in the
world to understand” why Europeans would be there, he added.
“It would be a clear contradiction,” Borrell said.
“My advice to EU countries was to ignore that event, and I
hope that many of them will follow that advice. But each member state is
completely sovereign in deciding whether to go or not to go.”
The presence of EU representatives at the “inauguration” of Vladimir Putin
Reuters reported that 20 EU member states would boycott
Putin’s “inauguration,” but seven other countries would send representatives.
Agency wrote that diplomats from France, Hungary, and Slovakia would attend the
event.
An unnamed senior Kremlin official said that heads of all
foreign diplomatic missions in Moscow had been invited to Putin’s inauguration.
Representatives of France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Hungary,
and Slovakia will attend “inauguration” of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin,
RFE/RL (Radio Liberty), citing its own sources, reported on May 7.
“Presidential elections” in Russia in 2024
Russia held the so-called “presidential election” on March
15-17 in which no opposition politicians participated. Russian Central Election
Commission(CEC) announced on March 18 that it had “counted” 100% of protocols
and that Putin allegedly won 87.28% of the vote.
Other candidates were Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of
Russian Federation) who received 4.31% of the vote, Vladislav Davankov (New
People Party) - 3.85%, and Leonid Slutsky (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia)
- 3.2%, according to CEC.
There is no legitimacy in Russia’s imitation of presidential
election, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. White House agreed
that “elections” in Russia were unfair.
At the same time, Putin was congratulated on his victory by
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, leaders of Venezuela and Nicaragua, Nicolas
Maduro and Daniel Ortega, presidents of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and
Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russian media outlet Meduza reported that fraud in “presidential election” in Russia was on an unprecedented scale – it was impossible even to determine the number of fake “votes”.