‘The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia,’ EU foreign policy chief Kallas says. Brussels pledges new sanctions after State Duma elections.

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Machinations

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

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The European Union is drawing up new sanctions against Russia following its September 18 to 20 State Duma elections, targeting organizers and candidates who ran in occupied Ukrainian territory, according to a declaration from EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Brussels says it will not recognize the results in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

The EU's statement points to the exclusion of Yabloko candidates — described as one of the last opposition parties and the only one with an anti-war platform — as evidence the vote narrowed rather than widened Russians' choices. It also notes Russia declined to invite OSCE observers, leaving no independent assessment of the process.

Kallas summed it up by saying only the ‘veneer of democracy’ remains in Russia, a description the EU is now backing with a fresh round of sanctions on those it holds responsible.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Calling an election a veneer and then sanctioning the people who put up the veneer is at least an honest use of the word. Nobody invited the referees, the other team got left off the roster, and the result got announced anyway, which is a pattern anyone who has watched a rigged raffle at a small event would recognize instantly. The sanctions might sting somebody's travel plans, but they won't put the opposition back on the ballot.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Machinations · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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