Linkevicius: Lithuania does not recognize legitimacy of Russian elections in Crimea
Lithuania refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the elections to the Russian State Duma that took place in the Crimea. The Russian MPs elected in the Crimea will not be considered as legitimate by Lithuania with all the attendant consequences, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Linas Linkevičius stated in his interview with DELFI.
“It doesn’t mean the direct assessment of elections as a whole; it means that we believe everything that is happening in the Crimea to be illegal. We don’t believe the events that happened in the Crimea to be elections. Moreover, we do not acknowledge the results. In addition, we aren’t going to view those members of State Duma, who were elected in the Crimea, as State Duma Deputies with all the attendant consequences. Their status will be undesirable in our country and, I hope, throughout the European Union,” the Minister said.
Lithuania stands in solidarity with OSCE conclusions on the results of elections in Russia. Linkevičius himself doesn’t expect that something will change in Russia after these elections. “Frankly speaking, I see no significant changes. It can’t be said that some changes have happened except that authority was increasingly concentrated at one point,” Linas Linkevičius noted. Six nominees of the United Russia Party were elected MPs of the Russian State Duma.
The Deputy Prime Ministers of the Crimea, Mikhail Sheremet and Ruslan Baalbek, and also the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Crimea, Natalia Poklonskaya, were elected to the State Duma on the basis of party lists.