Putin has been illegitimate since 2018

It's nice that experts who have been talking about Putin's illegitimacy for a long time are no longer considered marginalized. At least in my life, this is not the first time this has happened. Forgive my immodesty.

Today, 20 EU states do not recognize Putin as legitimate.

However, I have a small clarification.

Putin lost his legitimacy not in 2024, but much earlier - in 2018.

Let me remind you, firstly, that the "elections of 2018" took place in the occupied territories of Ukraine (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol with a special status).

Secondly, both in 2024 and in 2018, the basic principles of electoral law, which are sacred and inviolable for the democratic world, were grossly violated in the Russian Federation.

That is why we are talking about the starting point of the illegitimacy of the Kremlin's junta of impostors in 2018, not 2024.

Just as Russia's aggression against Ukraine began in February 2014, not in 2022.

Source

About the author. Andriy Mahera, lawyer, former Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission

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