To legitimize the election process, Russia’s Central Election Commission announced the invitation of a proud number of 1115 “international observers” from 129 countries. EPDE identified around 150 of fake observers and “experts”, among them rather unknown European local politicians and activists representing or affiliated with far-right parties or movements.

The Russian Federation held presidential “elections” on March 15-17, 2024. Voting took place not only within Russia’s legal borders, but also illegally in the territories of Ukraine, including the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions occupied after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, as well as in Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014. Vladimir Putin’s run for election was made possible after a controversial constitutional referendum in 2020, resetting his previous presidential terms and allowing him to compete also potentially in 2030.

Official figures purportedly show Vladimir Putin securing an unprecedented 87.3 percent of the vote, approximately 76 million votes, amidst a reported turnout exceeding 77 percent. However, the conduct of these elections was marred by numerous irregularities and lacked fundamental principles of democratic elections.

The renowned civic election observation organization Golos noted that “there has never been a presidential campaign that so blatantly disregarded constitutional standards,” calling the process an “imitation” of an election. According to Golos estimates, based on recognized statistical monitoring methods, at least 22 million votes cast for the incumbent president could be considered fraudulent.

The Council of the European Union stated that the Russian presidential elections “took place in a highly restricted environment exacerbated also by Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine“. The crackdown on opposition figures, media, and civil society organizations intensified, exemplified by the tragic death of Alexei Navalny.

The United States strongly denounced Russia’s ongoing attempts to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, threatening sanctions against those “who serve as election observers for the Kremlin’s sham elections in occupied parts of Ukraine”.

Following the practice of Belarus, the Kremlin refused to invite internationally reputable observation institutions such as the OSCE/ODIHR or independent observers from what they call “unfriendly states”. The EPDE investigation shows, however, that Russia still relies on the massive use of so-called “fake observers” to imitate credible international election observation. At the same time, it is no longer able to engage prominent European politicians, including active members of the European Parliament or the parliaments of EU Member States, in such imitation. This can be read as a result of the introduction of a stricter code of conduct in the European Parliament, initiated by the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group. It is also worth noting the threat of sanctions for fake observers expressed by the US State Department. The discrediting of international election observation by fake observers is also a topic increasingly covered by the world’s largest media.

To legitimize the election process, Russia’s Central Election Commission announced the invitation of a proud number of 1115 “international observers” from 129 countries, among them a small number of rather unknown European local politicians and activists representing or affiliated with far-right parties or movements. At the same time, one can see an increase in the involvement of politicians and “experts” from countries of the so-called Global South, often representing autocracies or dictatorships.

According to the official data, 706 of these “observers” were officially accredited. The 224 participants of the World Youth Forum, held in Sochi from March 1-7,2024, were also invited to observe the elections as “experts.” At least 34 of the “observers” illegally visited the occupied territories of Ukraine, presumably without official permit of the Ukrainian authorities.

EPDE was able so far to identify approx. 150 of these fake observers and “experts”. In the table below we present selected names of citizens of European countries that appeared in Russian mass media in the context of the legitimization of the rigged “elections”. The full report will be published in the upcoming weeks.

We call on the EU to consider imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on non-EU citizens involved in illegal activities in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

We also call on the EU to impose sanctions against all Russian officials involved in the organization of voting in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia and in the falsification of election results.

We also call on institutions and national and regional parliaments in Europe to introduce laws and codes of conduct that would prevent their members from participating in politically biased election observation.